Hawaiian Telcom Services filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission charging Nexstar Media Group with negotiating in bad faith by withholding retransmission consent, blacking out KHON Honolulu and several satellite stations.
The complaint comes as Nexstar is engaged in a massive blackout with DirecTV affecting about 200 stations, if you include an earlier ongoing dispute with Nexstar-managed stations owned by Mission Broadcasting and White Knight Broadcasting. DirecTV is offering impacted viewers a $10 rebate for the programming they’re not receiving because it hasn’t reached a new retransmission agreement with Nexstar. Nexstar, which owns the biggest U.S. station group, is known for aggressively pursuing top retransmission payments from distributors.
In its complaint, Hawaiian Telcom said that it was negotiating with Nexstar as its retransmission agreement neared expiration on June 30.
Hawaiian Telcom said it asked for a one-week extension while negotiations continued over the July 4 holiday, but Nexstar failed to respond until a few minutes before the agreement expires.
The timing forced Hawaiian Telcom to take down the signal of KHON, a Fox affiliate that carries The CW programming on a digital subchannel, rather than risk violating the Communications Act and copyright law, the complaint said.
Hawaiian Telcom said many of its cable TV subscribers cannot receive the stations over the air because of topographic considerations.
In a statement, Nexstar said, “We believe this complaint is completely without merit and we will continue to work with HT to restore our services in short order.”
On its website, Hawaiian Telcom claims that Nexstar is asking for a 70% increase over the previous rate.
“They are trying to leverage their market power to force higher rates,” according to the website. “Nexstar has a history of forcing blackouts with TV providers. In fact, we are not alone, Nexstar is also currently engaged in negotiations with DirectTV resulting in a blackout that impacts millions of consumers nationwide. Hawaiian Telecom is fighting for fair rates for you.”
According to the complaint, Nexstar offered a series of one-hour extensions and the two sides have exchanged proposals, indicating that the negotiations are not yet at an impasse.
Changing the status quo by triggering a blackout before an impasse is reached is a bad faith tactic under government rules, Hawaiian Telecom said.
“Nexstar’s unilateral change in the status quo (by forcing a blackout) is a circumvention of its obligation to negotiate in good faith,” according to the complaint. ”As an act of bad faith, expedited Commission action is critical to avoid harm to many Hawaiian Telecom’s cable subscribers (Nexstar’s viewers) who are unable to receive the Stations’ signals off-air due to topographic considerations.”
Hawaiian Telcom is asking the commission to declare Nexstar’s failure to maintain the status quo a violation of Nexstar’s duty to negotiating in good fath for each day after June 30 that Nexstar continues to refuse to extend the term of the previously existing agreement and provide any other relief the FCC deems appropriate.
