Sinclair pulls Comcast’s HDTV plug

[Gregg Lengling]

By Jeremy Heidt, jheidt@nashvillecitypaper.com
February 25, 2005
   
Comcast's high-definition viewers in Nashville lost the local Fox station's signal Wednesday night after negotiations between broadcasters broke down.

"There was a failure in good faith negotiations, and we wanted the status to reflect that fact," said Mark Aitken, director of advanced technology for Sinclair Broadcasting Group. Sinclair is the parent of Nashville's WZTV Channel 17.

Comcast officials in Atlanta confirmed that HDTV signals for Sinclair stations were yanked off the cable network in six markets nationwide, including Nashville; Baltimore; Pittsburgh; Richmond, Va.; Charleston, S.C.; and Paducah, Ky.

The plug was pulled during the 6-7 p.m. time frame, said Reg Griffin, Comcast's spokesman in Atlanta.

"We hope to negotiate the return of the channel, but I won't speculate on when that might happen," Griffin said. "We're glad our viewers got to see the Super Bowl, the Daytona 500 and a few episodes of American Idol."

Comcast had been broadcasting WZTV's HDTV signal, which remains available through over-the-air antennas, since Feb. 4 on its digital channel 183.

The temporary carriage agreement was only supposed to last a few weeks until a final agreement could be reached, said Sinclair's general counsel, Barry Faber.

"We did that because of the timing with the Super Bowl and we felt an agreement was within reach," added Faber, Sinclair's chief negotiator.

He said the two sides are continuing to talk, though snowstorms in both Philadelphia and Baltimore would likely delay action on Sinclair's latest proposal to Comcast until today.


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[Mark Strube]

Huh... so Milwaukee isn't the only area Sinclair is causing problems. When will they get their act together??  :Shoot:

[GBK]

the channel is available ota.. it serves them right sign up with worthless cable and that's what you get.. both of them playing power/money grab.  too bad for the customers but that's the way it should be.