{"id":799670,"date":"2025-01-10T17:15:02","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T22:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marketnewsdesk.com\/index.php\/optimum-announces-update-on-carriage-negotiations-with-nexstar-offers-customers-solutions-to-keep-watching-their-local-broadcast-stations\/"},"modified":"2025-01-10T17:15:02","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T22:15:02","slug":"optimum-announces-update-on-carriage-negotiations-with-nexstar-offers-customers-solutions-to-keep-watching-their-local-broadcast-stations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marketnewsdesk.com\/index.php\/optimum-announces-update-on-carriage-negotiations-with-nexstar-offers-customers-solutions-to-keep-watching-their-local-broadcast-stations\/","title":{"rendered":"Optimum Announces Update on Carriage Negotiations With Nexstar; Offers Customers Solutions to Keep Watching Their Local Broadcast Stations"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Optimum Announces Update on Carriage Negotiations With Nexstar; Offers Customers Solutions to Keep Watching Their Local Broadcast Stations<\/b><\/p>\n

Optimum Customers Can Visit Optimum.com\/Nexstar for Details<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE<\/a>)–
\nDespite Optimum\u2019s best efforts to reach a fair and reasonable agreement with Nexstar, the owners of multiple broadcast stations, their content has been removed from Optimum TV lineups, effective 5:00PM ET today.<\/p>\n

\nOptimum offered an extension to keep Nexstar\u2019s content on the air while we continued to negotiate to reach a fair deal for our customers, but Nexstar refused.<\/p>\n

\nOptimum issues the following statement on its carriage negotiations with Nexstar and customer-friendly options available to Optimum customers:<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, Nexstar is using an anti-consumer negotiation tactic \u2013 tying local channels to less popular ones \u2013 requiring Optimum and its customers to pay for channels like NewsNation, which has essentially no viewership, in order to continue carrying Nexstar broadcast stations in various markets across the country.<\/i><\/p>\n

To illustrate the absurdity of this demand, we note that in any given month, 90% of customers \u2013 more than 1.2 million \u2013 never tune in to NewsNation, making it unfair to force customers to pay tens of millions of dollars for content they never watch and hold them hostage to force carriage of broadcast stations. Despite NewsNation\u2019s shockingly low viewership, Nexstar has taken this one step further by demanding expanded distribution of the channel to hundreds of thousands more customers, requiring that even more customers who don\u2019t watch it are made to pay for it.<\/i><\/p>\n

Plus, Nexstar is demanding exorbitant rates, the highest of any broadcasting group.<\/i><\/p>\n

Nexstar\u2019s “all or nothing” approach of price gouging customers by forcing them to pay for content they don\u2019t want and bundling different stations and channels together into the same negotiations \u2013 despite their varied programming and audiences across different states \u2013 is in no one\u2019s best interest but their own.<\/i><\/p>\n

Optimum values local programming and understands that viewers in New York do not watch the same content or have the same interests as viewers in Texas, Arkansas, or California, so it is unreasonable, anti-local, detrimental to customers, and unfair for Nexstar to demand unrelated and contrasting content carriage.<\/i><\/p>\n

We remain open to continued negotiations with Nexstar to reach a fair new deal to restore their programming on Optimum TV lineups. In the meantime, customers who are looking to watch Nexstar-owned content can continue to do so for free over the air with an antenna or visit www.optimum.com\/nexstar<\/a> to learn more about the solutions Optimum is making available.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Steps for Customers to Take:<\/b><\/p>\n