After filing a complaint with the FCC earlier this month, Hawaiian Telcom last week said it reached a new multi-year distribution deal with Nexstar that restores five channels.
The new agreement brings back KHON-TV (Fox), KHII (MyNetwork), KHON2 (CW), cable news network NewsNation, and digital channel Rewind TV, to Hawaiian Telcom’s lineup. The stations had gone dark on Hawaiian Telcom on June 30 after an existing contract expired without a new deal, despite the two parties still negotiating.
As a result, Hawaiian Telcom had filed a complaint with the FCC on July 5, accusing Nexstar of failing to provide an adequate extension to avoid disruption even though the two hadn’t hit an impasse in talks, and asserting the broadcaster wasn’t negotiating in good faith. Last week Hawaiian Telcom said it amended its complaint to the FCC after reaching a new agreement, including financial terms, with Nexstar.
Still, in its press release Hawaiian Telcom indicated Nexstar was still pressuring the telco, claiming the broadcaster refused to sign the new deal unless it withdrew the original complaint to the FCC and agreed not to file future complaints against the broadcaster – something Hawaiian Telcom said it won’t do.
“While we regret the inconvenience to our customers, we strongly believe that the circumstances were necessary to hold Nexstar, the largest U.S. TV station owner, not just accountable under the law, but to push back from the unrealistic and unsustainable fees it had been demanding for these channels,” said Filifotu Vaai, Vice President of Consumer Product Sales at Hawaiian Telcom. “Although we have reached an agreement with Nexstar, we will not drop our complaint at the FCC asserting that Nexstar violated federal law with its negotiating tactics, including using our customers as pawns.”
Hawaiian Telcom claims Nexstar has increased its rates nearly five times that of inflation in Hawaii over the last five years, while also pointing to separate station blackouts that it asserts Nexstar uses as a negotiating tactic as it demands higher fees. Earlier this month a retrans dispute between Nexstar and DirecTV saw nearly 160 Nexstar stations go dark on the providers pay TV systems including DirecTV, DirecTV Stream and U-Verse. Nexstar has also been accused of aggressive tactics and seen disputes with Comcast and Dish.
As traditional pay TV providers and broadcasters such as Nexstar continue to spar over rising retrans fees, a coalition of broadcasters – including Nexstar – last week banded together in a new advocacy group to push for more direct retrans negotiations with virtual MVPDs. For deeper dives on those efforts and why it matters see here and here.