Hawaiian Telcom to carry stations till Jan. 8

Hawaiian Telcom and Raycom Media, owner of Hawaii News Now, have agreed to extend their current contract,, eliminating a potential blackout through Jan. 8.

The pay-TV provider recently notified its roughly 34,000 TV subscribers on Oahu that if a new agreement or extension was not reached by midnight today Thursday, it would be forced to pull channels KGMB (CBS) and KHNL (NBC) off the air on Jan. 1 Friday.

The extension runs until midnight on Jan. 8.

TV providers pay retransmission consent fees to broadcasters to carry their signals.

The American Cable Association, which represents nearly 750 small and midsize cable operators nationwide, said that over the past 10 years retransmission fees have soared to $6.3 billion in 2015 from $28 million in 2005. Industry analysts project U.S. TV station retransmission fees will reach between $10 billion and $12 billion by 2021.

Ultimately, the costs will be passed on to consumers, industry analysts say.

Rules governing retransmission consent fees, part of the 1992 Cable Act designed to ensure the availability of local news and information, were enacted when major networks dominated TV.

Weight Watchers stock soars 19% as Oprah ad airs

NEW YORK >> Weight Watchers is getting another boost from Oprah Winfrey.

The weight loss company’s shares soared Wednesday as a TV commercial starring Winfrey began to air.

The commercial shows past videos of Winfrey working out and referencing her struggle with weight, a frequent topic of her former talk show. The ad ends with Winfrey asking viewers if they’re ready to join her. “Let’s do this together,” she says.

She tweeted the ad to her more than 30 million followers on Tuesday.

Weight Watchers stock has more than tripled since October, when Winfrey bought a 10 percent stake in the New York company. Besides the new ads, Weight Watchers has also made changes to its plans to better fit with Winfrey’s message of living a healthy and happier life, and not just focusing on weight loss.

Shares of Weight Watchers International Inc. jumped $3.68, or 19 percent, to close Wednesday at $23.05.

Weight Watchers brought in Winfrey at a precarious time for the company. It has been hurt by the popularity of fitness trackers and free food-tracking apps. Despite recent gains in the stock, it is still down about 8 percent from a year ago.

Las Vegas visitors up 4% last month

LAS VEGAS >> Las Vegas tourism officials say the destination continues to attract more visitors with 3.4 million people filling Sin City in November, a nearly 4 percent increase compared with a year ago.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority released statistics Wednesday that showed increases in every category — with the exception of fewer hotel rooms — including occupancy rising to 86.4 percent, the average daily room rate climbing to $121.77 and convention attendance jumping to nearly 560,000 during the month.

The increase comes as casinos in Clark County saw an 8.4 percent jump in what they kept of the money that was gambled and the number of airline passengers rose by 10 percent.

Through November, the number of Vegas visitors is up 2.8 percent to 39.1 million people for the year.

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