Cable TV operator Optimum and TV station and cable network owner Nexstar were blaming each other for the blackout of Nexstar’s TV stations and cable channels from Optimum cable TV systems. Subscribers to Optimum in Westchester and the Hudson Valley in addition to Connecticut are among those affected. Instead of the regular programming to which they’ve become accustomed a notice from Optimum appears saying the channel is no longer available. The notice suggests that viewers may be able to see some Nexstar content if they set up an over-the-air antenna to receive broadcast signals.
Affected on Optimum’s Westchester system are New York TV station WPIX Channel 11, the national news network NewsNation, station WZME, which carries classic television shows, and Antenna TV, which also carries older programs. In a separate dispute, sports programming from the MSG (Madison Square Garden) networks was blacked out from Optimum.
Optimum said in a statement that it has made “best efforts to reach a fair and reasonable agreement with Nexstar.” Optimum said that it “offered an extension to keep Nexstar’s content on the air while we continued to negotiate to reach a fair deal for our customers, but Nexstar refused.”
Optimum accused Nexstar of “requiring Optimum and its customers to pay for channels like NewsNation, which has essentially no viewership, in order to continue carrying Nexstar broadcast stations in various markets across the country.” Optimum claimed that Nexstar is demanding increases in the rates Optimum pays to carry its programming.
Nexstar accused Altice USA, parent company of Optimum, of removing Nexstar programming seen on 63 local television stations in 42 markets across the country in addition to dropping NewsNation.
“Altice has decided to deprive more than two million Americans of critical local news, the NFL Playoffs, live sports and other entertainment programming, as well as essential alerts regarding winter weather and natural disasters,” Nexstar said. “Nexstar has tried to engage in good faith negotiations with Altice since October, only to have Altice refuse to do so by repeatedly demanding special terms that are wildly out of step with both our longstanding relationship and the cable television marketplace.”
Michael Biard, Nexstar’s president and CEO, said, “Altice has consistently made unreasonable and unprecedented demands of Nexstar, culminating with their decision to walk away from the negotiations. 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.”
Biard alleged that debt carried by Altice has forced “Optimum subscribers to continually pay more while getting less.”
