Gray Fighting Must-Carry Complaint About Competition, Parker Says
Gray Television -- which is angling for its KVLY-TV Fargo to get Channel 4 carriage on Cable One in that North Dakota market -- is trying to squash competition from Parker Broadcasting of Dakota License by opposing Parker's must-carry complaint…
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trying to get KRDK-TV Valley City on Channel 4 (see 1603040033), Parker said Thursday in FCC docket 16-69 in a response to Gray's opposition to the complaint (see 1603230024). Parker said Gray claims its understanding was that KRDK -- which it once owned -- wouldn't seek Channel 4 carriage after that sale, but "this was never the understanding of Parker's current owner, nor was any such agreement ever a part of the purchase documents." As "a large, sophisticated broadcaster, one would have expected that if channel positioning were so critical to Gray, it would have incorporated this provision into the purchase documents," Parker said. The broadcaster also said Gray's argument that the Parker complaint is time-barred because it was filed more than 60 days after Cable One denied carriage is off-base because Cable One didn't deny carriage until Feb. 11. Parker bought the station from Gray in 2014 in a deal brokered by the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council (now known as the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council) and lauded by the FCC for increasing programming and ownership diversity (see 1408280050). Gray didn't comment Friday.