Oceanic customers have KITV again after agreement

KITV programming returned to the Oceanic Time Warner Cable system at about 3:25 p.m. Thursday after an agreement was reached in a 10-day-long contract dispute between their respective parent companies.

At issue was the retransmission consent agreements in which Time Warner Cable Inc. pays Hearst Television Inc., both based in New York City, for programming. Terms were not disclosed.

During the dispute, Time Warner Cable had blamed “greedy broadcasters” for driving up costs for customers and decried Hearst’s demand for a 300 percent increase, a figure Hearst officials said was inaccurate. Industry studies have shown that while broadcasters’ programming drives most of cable and satellite providers’ viewers, payments made to cable programming providers are greater than those made to broadcast networks.

Hearst presented Time Warner Cable an offer Tuesday that it said was within 5 percent of the cable carrier’s most recent proposal, and Thursday the agreement was announced, without details or terms. The agreement restores Hearst’s affected NBC affiliates to cable in time for the start next week of the highly rated Olympics broadcasts.

The companies had cut off talks July 9, and programming of 16 Hearst stations in 13 U.S. markets carried via Time Warner Cable was blacked out July 10.

That included Hawaii’s cable reception of KITV and its MeTV station of vintage TV programs.

KITV continued over-the-air broadcasting and remained available on DirecTV and DISH Network satellite services as well as via Hawaiian Telcom. Its newscasts also continued to be streamed live online.

Nevertheless, the bulk of TV viewers in Hawaii depend upon Oceanic to receive both broadcast and cable stations.

“I want to thank our viewers for their patience throughout this impasse,” said Andrew Jackson, president and general manager of KITV. “Nothing is as important to me and the team at KITV than our relationships with viewers and advertisers.”

Advertisers are guaranteed to reach a certain number of viewers with commercials carried on a station, indicating that KITV will have to make up the losses to its clients, but Jackson declined to reveal figures or strategies. Broadcasters customarily air extra commercials upon restoration, commonly referred to as make-goods.

The cable provider issued a statement announcing a long-term agreement and thanking “customers for their patience and their willingness to stick with us through another unnecessary broadcaster blackout.”

It was the first time Joan C. Hoating of Red Hill had ever seen “a primary station” being “taken off like that,” she said. “That really did disturb me,” as decisions that were being made affected so many people who had “no say” in the matter.

She took action and called Oceanic, KITV and ABC Network in New York City. She received apologies during each phone call, “but everyone was blaming each other and I was getting nowhere with it,” Hoating said.

She praised the morning show on KUMU-FM 94.7 for spurring people to action to call the parties involved to make their voices heard.

Just as the programming was to come back Thursday, she was happy to know she could start off today with “Good Morning America” and “The View,” and looked forward to “a new one we never had a chance to see, ‘Good Afternoon America,’ and some other programs, too,” she said.

Another viewer, tired of the wait for programming restoration, filed a $1.4 million lawsuit against KITV, Oceanic and their parent companies in U.S. District Court at 1:50 p.m., just about an hour and a half before KITV and MeTV returned to Oceanic.

Benjamin White of Pearl City, “just a private citizen,” he said, accuses the parties of violating the Communications Act of 1934, the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992, his First Amendment rights and other violations of federal law in the 10-day blackout.

He had not seen a Time Warner Cable online disclaimer reminding subscribers that they do not pay for channels on an individual basis, but for a package of channels and the technology and service behind delivery of the channels. “So we do not typically offer a credit for channels that have been blacked out,” the website said.

White expressed concern over efforts to repeal or reform the act that will be heard before the U.S. Senate on Tuesday.

Under the 1992 Cable Act, commercial broadcast television stations have a right to be carried on cable systems and may invoke must-carry rights with cable or satellite system operators. Under must-carry, broadcast stations receive no compensation.

Commercial TV stations also may enter into retransmission consent agreements with cable or satellite companies, under which they receive negotiated compensation. This portion of the act does not guarantee cable or satellite carriage of broadcast stations.

By law, stations must decide every three years if their relationships with cable and satellite operators will be governed by must-carry rules or under retransmission consent agreement.

Retransmission negotiations will “not be any time soon” for KGMB-TV, KHNL-TV and KFVE-TV, said Hawaii Now General Manager Rick Blangiardi. The retrans agreements covering KFVE and KHNL are tied together and may be up “by the end of next year,” said John Fink, KFVE vice president and general manager.

KHON-TV’s next retransmission negotiation date was unclear Thursday afternoon, but according to President and General Manager Joe McNamara, talks were not expected to begin in the near term.