Broadcast station group powerhouse Nexstar saw its affiliates, as well its NewsNation cable network, pulled from Altice USA’s Optimum pay TV service late last week, with the two sides unable to agree on retransmission consent renewal terms.
Nexstar operates more than 200 broadcast stations in 116 U.S. markets. Many of them are affiliates of The CW, the broadcast network also owned by the media company. CW flagship station WPIX-TV might be most affected by this latest pay TV blackout, given that many of its viewers in the New York Tristate area are among Optimum’s 1.9 million remaining subscribers.
Overall, according to Nexstar, the blackout impacts 63 of its stations in 42 markets.
For its part, Altice USA, a heavily indebted component of European billionaire Patrick Drahi’s cable empire, claims that Nexstar is trying to cram tier upgrades for fledgling cable channel NewsNation down its throat, even though “90%” of Optimum viewers never watch the channel.
"Despite NewsNation’s shockingly low viewership, Nexstar has taken this one step further by demanding expanded distribution of the channel to hundreds of thousands more customers, requiring that even more customers who don’t watch it are made to pay for it,” Altice USA said in a statement.
Altice USA noted that affected Optimum subscribers can still access ABC, CBS, CW, FOX and NBC local affiliates owned by Nexstar via an over-the-air antenna. This is something pay TV companies usually remind consumers of when they’re doing battle over broadcast retransmission fees with station groups.
But the MSO took it a step further, also reminding everyone that NBC can be accessed via Peacock, while CBS can be streamed over Paramount+.
“Nexstar’s ‘all or nothing' approach of price gouging customers by forcing them to pay for content they don’t want and bundling different stations and channels together into the same negotiations — despite their varied programming and audiences across different states — is in no one’s best interest but their own,” added Altice USA. The cable operator, which has seen slowing recently of its core wireline home internet offering, is trading at around $2.40 a share these days, down from a peak of $37.83 back in May 2021.
In its own messaging, Nexstar noted Altice USA’s recent carriage impasse with MSG Networks, which has blacked out the regional sports network home of the NBA’s New York Knicks and the NHL’s Rangers, Islanders and Devils on the Long Island-based Optimum since New Year’s Day.
“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,” the station group said.