Stations arrive at cable deal

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A deal was reached Friday between three local television stations and Time Warner Cable that kept the stations available to subscribers of the cable company.

The previous contract expired at 5 p.m. Friday, which created a deadline. If no new contract was reached by then, the three LIN Media stations — WKBN (CBS), WYTV (ABC) and WYFX (Fox) — would have withheld their signal from Time Warner.

The deal was reached just before the deadline.

In the week leading up to the deadline, the three stations mounted a campaign to inform their viewers who are Time Warner subscribers of the possible disruption in signal.

The contract talks had been stalemated over the dollar amount. Details of the new agreement were not released Friday.

“We are pleased to report that an agreement has been reached with Time Warner Cable,” said David Coy, general manager of the stations. “As a result, viewers may continue to watch WKBN, WYFX and WYTV programming without disruption.”

Time Warner spokesman Mike Hogan echoed news of the contract agreement. “Time Warner Cable customers can continue to view the programming of LIN Media’s stations without interruption,” he said in a brief statement.