Young Broadcasting challenged EchoStar Communications Corp.'s assertion that Young is insisting on carriage of all or none of its TV stations in order to gain carriage on EchoStar's satellites.
"We offered EchoStar each of our stations on an individual station basis, and we have also offered all of our stations as a group. EchoStar had a choice," said Deborah McDermott, executive vice president of Young. EchoStar last week filed a complaint at the FCC saying that Young would not grant EchoStar carriage of ABC affiliate WKRN-TV in Nashville and NBC affiliate KRON-TV in San Francisco without agreeing to also carry independent KCAL-TV in Los Angeles.
EchoStar stopped transmitting the Young stations in Nashville and San Francisco last week because it couldn't come to retransmission terms with Young.
- Paige Albiniak
