Nexstar Media Group and Altice USA, owner of the Optimum cable TV systems in Westchester, the Hudson Valley, Connecticut and elsewhere, have reached an agreement to settle their dispute over the fees Optimum has to pay Nexstar to carry its TV stations such as WPIX channel 11 in New York and cable networks such as NewsNation. In a joint statement, Nexstar and Optimum referred to the agreement as a “comprehensive partnership.”
The agreement has resulted in all Nexstar programming being restored to Altice USA’s Optimum TV customers.
“Together, Nexstar and Optimum thank our customers and viewers for their patience as we partnered on the best deal for them,” the statement said. Terms of the agreement were not released.
An additional statement from Optimum provided to the Business Journal added, “At Optimum, we have a clear mission: provide the programming that our customers want at an affordable price and give them choice and flexibility when selecting their desired TV content. We are proud to continue our track record of successfully partnering with programmers who put customers at the center.”
Nexstar owns America’s largest local television broadcasting group with 200 owned or partner stations in 116 U.S. markets reaching 220 million people. Nexstar’s national television properties include The CW network, NewsNation, and a 31.3% ownership stake in TV Food Network.
Optimum provides video, mobile, broadband and programming content including News12 and advertising services to approximately 4.6 million residential and business customers across 21 states.
As of Jan. 19, Optimum and MSG Networks had not reached an agreement that would restore MSG programming to Optimum’s cable systems. On Jan. 16, MSG Networks issued a statement directed at Optimum saying, “Cut the B.S. – give us the same deal you gave YES Networks just a few months ago OR give us our old deal which we had with you previously OR refund every subscriber what you owe them – $10 a month. And by the way you already owe them $5 for the lack of programming they didn’t get for the first half of January.”
Optimum commented on MSG’s statement by telling the Business Journal, “MSG Networks’ latest statement says it all: they want to go backwards and not forwards. They are asking for an old model from before streaming solutions like the Gotham app, and that forces non-viewers to pay. We’d love to partner with them in a way to reflects what consumers want, not what worked in 2005.”
