UPDATED 1/11
ATLANTA—Ten Cox Media Group stations in six markets went dark on Friday night on SuddenLink channel lineups as the two sides were not able to reach a retransmission agreement.
The stations and markets impacted by this blackout are in KOKI (Fox) in Tulsa, Okla.; WHBQ (Fox) in Memphis, Tenn.; KAYU (Fox) in Spokane, Wash.; KIEM (NBC) and KVIQ (CBS) Eureka, Calif.; WABG (ABC), WXVT (CBS), WABG-DT2 (Fox) and WNBD-DT (NBC) in Greenville-Greenwood, Miss.; and KLAX (ABC) in Alexandria, La.
“Rather than reach a fair and reasonable deal with CMG, SuddenLink may instead choose to adversely impact their customers. Now, more than ever, viewers need daily access to important and evolving information on the pandemic, and social and political issues,” CMG said in its press release.
CMG says that SuddenLink customers can switch to another satellite, cable TV or streaming provider, or use an over-the-air antenna to access the station content that would be unavailable in the event of a blackout.
In its own announcement for the blackout, SuddenLink says CMG is responsible for pulling the channels and is seeking rates higher than any other broadcaster.
"Despite being in the midst of a pandemic when access to affordable news is incredibly crucial, Cox Media Group has pulled its channels from SuddenLink TV lineups in certain markets in an effort to extract an exorbitant increase in fees from us and our customers," SuddenLink said in its release. "With so many households across the nation struggling, we call on Cox Media Group to stop holding our customers hostage, return channels to our lineups and focus on working with us to negotiate a new deal that is fair to our customers."
