There was no 11th hour agreement in the retransmission-consent dispute between Time Warner Cable and Block Communications and, as such, two stations serving the Louisville, Ky. DMA are not available to the MSO's subscribers.
The parties faced a midnight deadline on June 1 for retrans consent for the signals of WDRB (Fox) Channel 41 and WMYO (MyNetworkTV) Channel 58. However, the website for WDRB carried this message early Friday: "WDRB has tried very hard to reach an agreement with Time Warner but the deadline has passed. After much negotiating, Time Warner has decided to reject our repeated offers leaving many of our viewers without a local TV station you like."
It also suggested that its watchers reach out to the cable company.
Time Warner Cable has said that it offered to carry the two Louisville stations at the same price its predecessor cable company in the area, Insight Communications, paid for the channels, but was rebuffed by Block Communications, which is demanding higher prices.
"We don't think that's fair to our customers, and will continue to negotiate to keep prices down," Time Warner Cable said in a statement.
On its web site, WDRB earlier had indicated that it is merely seeking fair value for its signal.
"Time Warner Cable is refusing to pay the fair market price for a Fox station," WDRB said in a statement. "That amount is two cents per day."
Time Warner Cable agreed to purchase Insight for $3 billion last year. It closed the deal in February.
