Granite Communications has blacked out three of its stations on Midwest-situated cable operator Mediacom, with an impasse over broadcast retransmission renewals quickly devolving into the usual fiery rhetoric.
"This morning, Granite Broadcasting became the latest station own to exploit our nation's outdated federal broadcast television laws in an effort to boost its bottom line," reads a statement released Monday morning by Mediacom.
"After extensive negotiations towards a new agreement, Granite is still demanding more than double the per subscriber price paid under the prior contract," the statement added. "Since these costs will ultimately be absorbed by the hard working residents of rural Illinois, Indiana and Minnesota, we have repeatedly communicated to Granite that their outrageous financial demands are unacceptable."
The stations blacked out include Granite's NBC affiliate in Duluth, Minn., KJBR-TV; its NBC affiliate in Fort Wayne, Ind., WISE-TV; and its NBC affiliate in Peoria, Ill., WEEK-TV.
Granite posted this message on its KJBR website: "Please know that we have tried hard to reach a fair agreement with Mediacom so that our viewers would not miss any of our stations' around-the-clock news coverage, weather emergencies, public service announcements and favorite local, KBJR 6 and Range 11 and My 9."
For more:
- read this KJBR announcement
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