Deadline extended for cable-TV talks

Associated Press

Sinclair Broadcast Group and two cable TV companies have announced an agreement to extend a midnight Friday deadline for a new contract until Jan. 14, averting an interruption of some programming to cable customers that carry Sinclair stations.

Sinclair and the two companies — Time Warner and Bright House Networks — issued news releases late Friday saying contract talks would continue.

The parties have been bogged down in negotiations over how much the cable companies should pay to carry Sinclair TV stations in markets around the country.

Local Sinclair stations — including affiliates of NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox — would have been dropped from channel lineups for roughly 4 million Time Warner customers and an undisclosed number of Bright House customers after midnight Friday without the extension.

Time Warner Cable Inc. vowed Friday to provide its cable customers with network TV stations from other cities if it lost the rights to carry local stations owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. past the midnight Friday deadline for a new contract.

The arrangement would have meant that viewers would get access to major network programming — including today’s Outback Bowl game on ABC between the Florida Gators and the Penn State Nittany Lions — if Sinclair had pulled its signals once the deadline passed. Viewers would have lost local programs, such as the local news. Syndicated shows such as “Seinfeld” would move to a different time.

The tactic could undercut local broadcast companies in these types of negotiations in the future.

The dispute had threatened to prevent cable customers in Sinclair markets around the country from seeing the Outback Bowl.

Time Warner spokeswoman Maureen Huff said that the cable company would import broadcast signals from other cities to replace Sinclair stations so local customers wouldn’t miss their network programming from NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox.