Thursday, September 27, 2007

KETV and Cox Reach Agreement

It looks like KETV-7's parent company, Hearst-Argyle Television, and Cox Comunications came to an agreement that will allow Cox to carry Omaha-based KETV's HD and analog signals. Here's a press release on the announcement. We'll have more on this in coming days on the blog and in the City Weekly newspaper.

HEARST-ARGYLE TELEVISION (Parent Company of KETV) AND COX COMMUNICATIONS SIGN RETRANSMISSION CONSENT AGREEMENT FOR SIX TV MARKETS INCLUDING OMAHA.

NEW YORK, N.Y., September 26, 2007 – Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc. (NYSE: HTV), parent of [STATION(S)] today announced an agreement providing retransmission consent for carriage over Cox Communications cable systems of the digital and analog signals of Hearst-Argyle’s television stations WESH-TV and WKCF-TV, Orlando; KMBC-TV, Kansas City, Missouri; KOCO-TV, Oklahoma City; WDSU-TV, New Orleans; KETV, Omaha; and KHBS-TV/KHOG-TV, Fort Smith/Fayetteville, Arkansas. The agreement includes carriage of the high-definition digital (HDTV) signals and carriage of digital multicast programming as well as continued carriage of the stations’ analog signals.

WESH and WDSU are NBC affiliates; WKCF is a CW affiliate; the others are ABC affiliates.

“We’re pleased to have our digital signal back on the Cox system and to be able to provide our award-winning local programs and our network programming to our valued viewers who are Cox subscribers,” said Sarah Smith of KETV.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

I guess its better than taking two years to resolve this baloney.

Anonymous said...

And by how much are our cable bills going to increase???

Anonymous said...

Did Cox raise rates when KMTV took two years to settle? Any price increase will be from the monopoly called Cox Communications. They own the market and can do what they please.

Anonymous said...

Thank God I have Qwest!

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 904 how can Cox be a monopoly just because Qwest only prodvides cable tv in parts of Omaha.

Anonymous said...

Cox shoved - Hearst blinked.

Anonymous said...

I think Hearst finally realized the cox omaha does not charge seperately for the HD channels.

Anonymous said...

During last night's (Wed) KETV 10 pm news, it was announced that the agreement was signed.

I thought it was interesting that they said that the agreement was made between KETV's parent company and Cox... and that "ABC HD programming" would return to Cox.

It was as if they were telling us that KETV itself had no say in the matter whatsoever.

And what's this with "ABC HD programming"? Are they saying that KETV doesn't produce any local HD programming?

Anonymous said...

11:52 a.m. said Cox shoved - Hearst blinked.

Has anyone seen or heard anything about the terms of the contract? Did Cox cave and offer Hearst-Argyle some cash or not?

Anonymous said...

12:41pm - Maybe KETV/Hearst figured out how much advertising revenue they'd lose if they pulled their signal from Cox. Without a doubt, advertisers would balk at paying the same rates after the station pulled its signal from Cox's - I'm guessing here - 100,000+? subscribers.

Anonymous said...

11:52 We will never no the contract terms they are private. I think the deal was they finally realized Cox Omaha doesn't charge seperate for the HD channels.

Anonymous said...

@ 9:53 PM...

Did you read the blog post, especially part with the press release?

It wasn't just KETV (on the Hearst-Argyle side), but rather a number of their stations that were affected by this thing with Cox.

Anonymous said...

Yes I read that I should have said maybe they finally understood no Cox location that's in a HA locatioons charges for the HD channels except for the rental of a box or cable card.

Anonymous said...

9:53....
KETV had no say in these negotiations. This was a corporate decision.
Also you said "And what's this with "ABC HD programming"? Are they saying that KETV doesn't produce any local HD programming?"
That's exactly what we are saying. Few local stations produce HD programming right now because of the cost. NET airs sports in HD. But you will not find KETV, KMTV, WOWT or KPTM putting out anything local in HD.

Anonymous said...

6:11...
KETV is putting their newscast out in HD. I'd say that's local.

Anonymous said...

Are you sure it's KETV?

Anonymous said...

No local station has an HD newscast. Just because something is on the digital channel does not mean it is produced or transmitted in HD.

When a station does finally go HD they will advertise the hell out of it.

Anonymous said...

It sure looks crystal clear, but I guess I was wrong.

Anonymous said...

4:01

Do you have an hdbox from Cox You might just be noticing thesignal clarity since KETV is now on fiber from the studio to Cox.

Anonymous said...

You'll know when the newscast is in HD because there will not be black bars on the sides

Anonymous said...

Cox added some other HD channels as well. National Geographic channel, TBS and CNN. When are they going to add HD channels that provide some actual HD content, like FX, USA, or FOX Sports?

CNN's signal is better, but what, am I supposed to be impressed by seeing Wolf Blitzer and Larry King in digital quality?

Anonymous said...

Anything new out there?

Anonymous said...

Yeah...new African-American hottie reporter on Channel 7...and we get to see her in high-def.