Comcast Subscribers Could Lose Fox Access: Talks May Lead to Temporary Cutoff in Richmond Tonight

By Jeffrey Kelley, Richmond Times-Dispatch

Feb. 28–Richmond-area Comcast subscribers could temporarily lose access to “American Idol,” NASCAR races and other Fox programming after midnight tonight.

Comcast Corp. and Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., which owns Fox Richmond, are negotiating a deal that would require the nation’s largest cable company to pay for use of Sinclair’s TV stations.

Comcast and Sinclair’s retransmission agreement, which covers regular and high-definition channels, was set to expire Feb. 4 but was pushed back until tomorrow. If no deal is made by then, Comcast may have to remove Fox Richmond until an agreement is in place.

Fox Richmond would remain available over-the-air from an antenna for free.

For about a month this year, 12 states served by Mediacom had some local chan- nels pulled by Sinclair after the cable company and station owner could not come to terms on an agreement. Sinclair had a similar dispute with Time Warner Cable, but the matter was resolved last month.

Cable companies generally believe they do not have to pay for service because the channels are available free over the air. Satellite companies pay broadcasters for service, and stations make money from TV advertising.

“Our goal is to resolve the situation without impact on customers,” Comcast spokeswoman Lisa Altman said in an e-mail yesterday. The company serves about 250,000 subscribers in the Richmond area.

According to cable industry publication Multichannel News, the Sinclair-Comcast negotiations involve roughly 3 million customers in markets including Pittsburgh, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., Nashville, Tenn., Tampa, Fla., and Richmond.

Bill Lane, general manager at Fox Richmond, said Sinclair is adamant about resolving the issue as soon as possible, “and we’re doing everything that we think is fair and just to see that happen.”

Comcast’s Altman said the company should have more information available on the negotiations later today.

Baltimore-based Sinclair owns, operates or provides services to 58 television stations in the U.S., largely Fox, CW and MyTV affiliates.

Contact staff writer Jeffrey Kelley at jkelley@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6348.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Richmond Times-Dispatch

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