C Spire to Blame for Retrans Deal Terms, Gray Says
A complaint from wireless provider C Spire that Gray and CBS aren't acting in good faith on a retransmission consent agreement (see 1906040031) is “untimely and utterly without merit,” said Gray in an opposition filing posted Tuesday in FCC docket…
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19-159. C Spire said CBS and Gray are preventing C Spire from airing Gray’s WLOX Biloxi, Mississippi, in the Diamondhead market unless C Spire also pays to retransmit another CBS affiliate, Tegna’s WWL-TV New Orleans. C Spire agreed to contract terms that control the circumstances for when WLOX can be retransmitted, Gray said. “That agreement remains in effect for another year and a half. To the extent C Spire is unhappy with the terms it negotiated, C Spire has only itself to blame,” said Gray. “CBS has every right to protect the interests of its other local affiliate also serving Diamondhead,” Gray said. “The fundamental tension among the competing interests of all three participants has made carriage of WLOX’s multicast channel not possible, but that failure is not evidence of bad faith.” Gray has “contracted away the station’s ability to negotiate (or have another negotiate on its behalf) in good faith,” America’s Communications Association filed. “This makes a mockery of the market-modification process.”