Cable One deal with WDAY puts CW back on in Fargo

Arrow and The Flash are back on Cable One program guides in Fargo, N.D.

CW affiliate WDAY announced a carriage agreement with the Phoenix, Ariz.-based MSO, which serves just under 700,000 customers across 19 states.

According to Prairie Business Magazine, WDAY was blacked out on Cable One from about 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. local time Monday, as the two sides worked to hammer out a deal. The last retransmission agreement expired Sept. 30, and the deadline to establish a new one had been pushed back three times.

A Cable One executive was unavailable to respond to FierceCable Tuesday. But Scott Geston, who serves as Cable One's general manager in the Fargo-Moorhead region, told Prairie Business, "The negotiations kept going after the deadline, and you know, we kept the volley going. It happened during the day, so not too many viewers were inconvenienced and I think we reached a deal that was fair."

Geston had earlier told the publication that WDAY was seeking a fee hike of about 490 percent. "We've come up more than they've come down, so we're trying," he added.

This latest skirmish between Cable One and a program supplier comes as the MSO's parent company, Graham Holdings, prepares to release subscriber data for the third quarter. In April, Cable One eschewed a long-term programming deal with Viacom, filling holes in its program guide with less expensive independent channels.

Video subscriber losses for Cable One tripled in the second quarter.

For more:
- read this Prairie Business Magazine story

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