Cable One has reached a new broadcast retransmission deal with Forum Communications, ending a three-day blackout of two ABC affiliates in North Dakota.
Terms of the deal were not announced.
“A signed agreement has been returned to Cable One. Signals should be restored soon,” Forum said on the station websites of WDAY-TV in Fargo and WDAZ-TV in Grand Forks.
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The two stations have been unavailable to Cable One subscribers in the respective local markets since Sept. 8, when the previous retrans deal expired.
“WDAY is still in negotiations with Cable One to resume bringing programming to you throughout this interruption,” the broadcaster’s statement read. “… Without a fair agreement, we will not be able to provide the premier news, sports, entertainment, weather, traffic updates, political coverage and other local and national programming that is most important to you.”
Forum’s statement includes the usual phone numbers and call to action for viewers to call Cable One and complain.
Cable One responded with this statement: “Cable One has been in negotiations to renew our contract with Forum Communications for the past several months, and we have tried to reach a fair deal. However, Forum is asking for a rate increase of more than 100% and they have refused our counter proposal to pay a rate that is consistent with what these networks are receiving in other markets,” the operator added. “Since we have been unable to reach a fair deal with Forum, they have forced Cable One to remove their channels from our channel line-up. Cable One will continue to negotiate in good faith with Forum Communications in hopes of restoring their channels to our line-up.”