Gray Files Good-Faith Negotiations Complaint Against Frontier
After weeks of retransmission consent negotiations with Frontier Communications, it became apparent the talks were "a sham" because the company acknowledged it couldn't enter an agreement on any terms, Gray Television said in a docket 12-1 good-faith negotiations complaint posted…
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Tuesday. Gray said its WWSB Sarasota, Florida, and South Carolina's WCSC-TV Charleston and WMBF-TV Myrtle Beach stations went dark Friday with less than an hour's notice. It said Frontier decided weeks earlier it wouldn't extend its retrans agreement with Gray but "engaged in Potemkin negotiations" of making offers that it wouldn't accept for stations it already had decided to drop. It said Frontier also neglected to notify video subscribers of the pending blackouts. Gray asked the FCC to impose the maximum penalty of as much as $562,500 for the good-faith violations and a separate $187,500 forfeiture for not notifying Sarasota customers about the impending drop of the only network-affiliated station providing local Sarasota news. Frontier emailed it “disagree[s] with the assertions made by Gray and will defend ourselves at the FCC."