NEW YORK—Altice USA has sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission complaining about Nexstar’s handling of retransmission consent negotiations, which recently led to a blackout of 63 Nexstar stations in 42 of the cable operator’s Optimum markets.
In the letter, Optimum complained Nexstar was “demanding exorbitant rate increases,” forcing it to “pay for less popular programming” and was violating a 2024 FCC order by handling retransmission-consent negotiations for WPIX New York. Nexstar operates Mission Broadcasting-owned WPIX under a local management agreement.
“As the Commission is well aware, in March of 2024, the FCC issued a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture and proposed a $1.8M fine against Nexstar, for taking de facto control of WPIX, the CW affiliate in New York, resulting in a violation of Section 310(d) of the Act through an unauthorized transfer of control, and a violation of the national television ownership cap,” the letter complained. “Altice, therefore, sought to negotiate with Mission Broadcasting, WPIX’s owner, for carriage of the station. Mission, however, advised that Nexstar held the necessary rights to negotiate for WPIX. Nexstar has continued to insist that the FCC’s order was not applicable to the negotiations and that WPIX be included in the agreement, refusing Optimum’s requests to remove WPIX from these negotiations, in apparent disregard of the Commission’s clear directive. Nexstar further required that the Company agree to a contractual provision stating that WPIX would continue to be governed by the Nexstar agreement even after all FCC decisions were final, regardless of whether such decisions had been stayed, until all possible appeals had been concluded—effectively extending these rights for years after an adverse FCC decision. Such blatant disregard of FCC rules and orders should not be tolerated.”
The letter also contended: “Nexstar’s fee demands, if met, would be the highest of any broadcasting group carried on the Optimum lineup. Retransmission consent fees represent the fastest-growing portion of a customer’s TV bill, and Nexstar’s anti-consumer approach to these negotiations aligns with the broken traditional video model. Despite a shrinking cable subscriber base, broadcasters like Nexstar continue to abuse their retransmission consent rights to seek more money from fewer customers, instead of recognizing the evolution of the industry, as well as increasing fragmentation of viewership, in an effort to meet customer expectations and demands for choice and value.”
The full text of the letter can be found here.
In response to the Optimum letter, Nexstar sent TV Tech this statement: "Altice’s claims strain credulity considering their unilateral decision to walk away from negotiations and put their subscribers in the middle, just as they have done with their recent drop of MSG Network. This letter to the FCC is an intentional distraction from Altice’s unprecedented and anticompetitive demands designed to benefit Altice-owned News12 at the expense of PIX11’s proprietary news product. We encourage Altice to return to negotiating an end to this impasse promptly so that consumers can again enjoy the programming they love and for which they continue to pay Altice even today."
Earlier in response to the blackout, Nexstar has blamed Altice for the failed negotiations. “Altice has consistently made unreasonable and unprecedented demands of Nexstar, culminating with their decision to walk away from the negotiations,” Nexstar president and chief operating officer Michael Biard said. “Unfortunately, this seems to be a regular pattern of behavior for Altice, which dropped the MSG Network just last week, depriving millions of New York sports fans the opportunity to see their favorite teams in action. We understand the difficulty of Altice’s financial situation, burdened as it is by billions in debt, but the solution isn’t to force Optimum subscribers to continually pay more while getting less.”
TV Tech's reporting on the FCC's order regarding WPIX can be found here. Nexstar's response disputing the ruling can be found here.
