Nexstar Media Group and Comcast have reached a new retransmission agreement, avoiding a blackout that could have started December 15 when their previous contract expired.
People familiar with the situation confirmed the deal was reached and pointed out that Nexstar was no longer warning viewers of an impending blackout. Neither company would comment on the agreement.
Nexstar began warning viewers that a blackout was possible last weekend.
The blackout would have affected about 90 Nexstar stations that operate in Comcast markets.
Earlier this year, Nexstar stations were blacked out to Verizon Fios subscribers for two weeks until the companies were able to hammer out an agreement.
At the same time, WPIX-TV in New York was restored to Comcast subscribers. WPIX was bought by Mission Broadcasting, but is operated by Nexstar under a local marketing agreement.
Other Mission stations were blacked out on DirecTV in October.
Nexstar and Comcast have been feuding over the ownership of WPIX for a year. Comcast filed a petition in 2021 asking the FCC to rule that Nexstar is the owner of the station, calling its management agreement with Mission a sham designed to evade the ownership cap rules.
Because Nexstar doesn’t own another station in the New York market, it is allowed to negotiate retransmission on behalf of the owners.
Nexstar sued Comcast claiming breach of contract and said Comcast had failed to pay millions of dollars in retransmission consent fees.
“Our recent retransmission consent agreement with Nexstar settles the pending litigation our companies have in the Southern District of New York,” a Comcast spokesperson said. “However, it does not address our proceedings at the FCC, which remain open.” ■
