Hawaiian Telcom has filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission against Nexstar Media accusing the broadcaster of failing to negotiate in good faith during active talks for a new retransmission consent agreement.
Hawaiian Telcom said Nexstar failed to provide an adequate retransmission consent extension while the parties were in active negotiations for TV stations KHON-TV, KHII and their satellite stations, which saw Nexstar-owned channels go dark at the end of June.
Retransmission consent disputes and related channel blackouts aren’t uncommon and broadcast giant Nexstar is currently embroiled in a major dispute with DirecTV, which saw nearly 160 channels blacked out on the pay TV provider’s systems over the holiday weekend. Nexstar has been accused of using aggressive tactics in retrans negotiations with others, including disputes with Comcast and Dish related to Nexstar’s purported role in agreements for Nexstar-managed stations owned by Mission and White Knight Broadcasting.
However, unlike some other retrans talks, in Hawaiian Telcom’s July 5 filing to the FCC it maintains that the parties never reached the point of an impasse in negotiations – an occurrence that would’ve allowed Nexstar to withhold an extension.
According to Hawaiian Telcom’s complaint, the station giant denied multiple requests for a one-week extension, instead offering a one-hour extension with five minutes before contract expiration, followed by a second one-hour extension offer that the telco asserts was too late as it came after the earlier extension expired and Hawaiian Telecom had already taken down the signals as required.
The original contract was set to expire June 30, and without an extension, five broadcast channels including KHON, KHII, the CW, GRIT, RewindTV, as well as cable network NewsNation went dark for Hawaiian Telecom customers.
After the signals went dark Hawaiian Telcom and Nexstar have since exchanged alternative proposals, according to the complaint, “clearly signaling that neither party believed they had reached an impasse that would have allowed Nexstar to withhold extending” the existing agreement.
“Insofar as negotiations between Nexstar and Hawaiian Telcom were ongoing not only up to the last minutes before the then-current agreement expired and Hawaiian Telcom was forced to take down KHON and KHII’s signals but since then as well, impasse is legally impossible and Nexstar’s unilateral change in the status quo (by forcing a blackout) is a circumvention of its obligation to negotiate in good faith,” wrote the telco to the FCC.
And while Hawaiian Telcom said the parties were still negotiating, a press release issued Wednesday evening took aim at Nexstar’s proposal, which it said asks for a 70% increase on the broadcast channels over today’s rate over the contract term. Hawaiian Telecom added that in the last five years Nexstar’s rates have jumped nearly five times that of the rate of inflation.
“Nexstar is using its market power to unjustifiably raise prices far beyond what is reasonable,” said Filifotu Vaai, vice president of Consumer Products and Sales at Hawaiian Telcom, in a statement. “Individuals and families in Hawai‘i cannot absorb these kinds of cost increases and we will continue to fight for fair and reasonable prices on behalf of our customers.”
In its complaint to the FCC, Hawaiian Telcom is asking the commission to declare Nexstar’s actions as failure to negotiate in good faith and to declare an additional act of bad faith for each day after June 30 that the station owner continued to refuse to extend the term of the existing agreement until either a new agreement or impasse is reached.
“As an act of bad faith, expedited Commission action is critical to avoid harm to many Hawaiian Telcom cable subscribers (Nexstar’s viewers) who are unable to receive the Stations’ signals off-air due to topographic considerations,” wrote Hawaiian Telcom.
Article and headline updated to correct the spelling of Hawaiian Telcom. An earlier version incorrectly stated "Hawaiian Telecom."