As Optimum and Tegna’s carriage deal nears expiration on the finish of the month, the telecommunications firm slammed the service supplier on Tuesday for imposing “egregious charge will increase which can be divorced from market actuality,” TheWrap has completely discovered.
Among the many alleged value hikes are a 30% enhance for Tegna’s main community associates and a 50% enhance for the CW.
Optimum argued that Tegna’s pricing technique “ignores the present media panorama, the place customers demand worth and adaptability.” It additionally mentioned it’s making a “whole disconnect between value and worth” and that the present programming mannequin is “damaged and outdated.”
“Tegna is working as if the market hasn’t modified in 20 years and its request is nothing wanting egregious. Broadcasters cling to an outdated, restrictive and now irrelevant enterprise mannequin that locations upward strain on buyer payments, forces them to pay for content material they don’t watch, and deprives customers of the selection they anticipate, and albeit, deserve,” Optimum’s President of Information, Programming and Enterprise Companies Keith Bowen mentioned. “Sufficient is sufficient. Tegna’s proposal isn’t simply unrealistic, its predatory. We is not going to stand by whereas broadcasters and programmers try to make use of our clients as clean checks.”
Representatives for Tegna didn’t instantly return TheWrap’s request for remark.
The allegations towards the broadcaster got here as its pending $6.2 billion merger with rival Nexstar Media Group awaits regulatory assessment. Underneath the phrases of the deal, Nexstar and Tegna could have a mixed portfolio of 265 tv stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia. They’d even have stations in 9 of the highest 10 markets, and in 41 of the highest 50.
Optimum mentioned that the businesses are “quickly contracting right into a duopoly” and that the deal exposes “the darkish aspect of broadcaster consolidation.”
“Tegna is trying to lock in skyrocketing charges now, successfully forcing Optimum’s constituents to pre-pay for a merger that may solely scale back their selections. Optimum is taking this stand not only for right this moment, however to cease a development the place broadcasters use the specter of blackouts to fund their takeover sprees. As broadcasters race to consolidate, they’re leaving the buyer behind,” Bowen added. “Optimum urges policymakers to look intently at how these price calls for function a precursor to anti-competitive conduct.”
Optimum has requested Tegna to enter into “good-faith negotiations” forward of the expiration of their present contract’s expiration on Dec. 31 at midnight.
“Optimum appears ahead to working with companions who perceive the realities of right this moment’s economic system and customers’ viewing habits — companions who acknowledge that the times of holding viewers hostage for increased charges, on each main and minor networks, are over,” Bowen concluded.
