Cable One and Newport Television are engaged in a retransmission-consent dispute that has resulted in five stations going dark on the cable operator's systems.
The parties failed to reach a retransmission-consent accord late Wednesday, impacting carriage for WPTY and WLMT in Memphis, KOKI and KMYT in Tulsa and WPMI in Mobile.
Newport claims that WJCT in Mobile is also affected, while Cable One says it doesn't carry the independent station.
"Newport presented a very, very fair offer that no other cable or satellite operator has found objectionable," said Newport vice president of operations Michael DiPasquale. "They refused it."
Cable One spokeswoman Melany Stroupe called Newport's demand of over $1 million dollars hardly fair.
"It's way more than other broadcasters are asking," she said. "We're willing to pay, but in this economy, we can't pay an excessive fee."
Cable One has held a hard line in retrans battles in the past, taking negotiations with Meredith's KPHO Phoenix down to the wire before narrowly averting a signal shutoff late in 2008.
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