Business & Tech

ABC Channel 12 Back On for Time Warner Customers

After 10 days, Hearst Television and Time Warner Cable reached an agreement that put our local ABC affiliate back on for TWC customers.

After a little over a week relying on streaming, watching full episodes online or missing programming and local news, WISN-TV is back on Time Warner Cable.

Anchor Kathy Mykleby on the Friday 10 pm broadcast welcomed Time Warner customers back, announcing the retransmission agreement between TWC and Hearst Television, the parent company of Milwaukee ABC affiliate WISN.

In a press release on the WISN website, Hearst CEO David Barrett said he was sorry for the inconvenience.

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“We appreciate the support and patience of our viewers, advertisers and local communities served by our stations, and we regret the inconvenience they’ve experienced over the past 10 days,” said Barrett. “This process has been an important step to insure the ongoing vitality of our local TV service in communities across the country.”

after talks broke down between the media giants over retransmission carriage fees, what the local affiliates ask the cable companies to pay to carry the stations.

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At the time, a story by Duane Dudek at jsonline reported Time Warner as saying Hearst was trying hike the fee by 300 percent, but Hearst, not surprisingly, said that figure is "inaccurate." Dudek posted an update about the agreement Friday, writing that it's not so unusual for these kinds of disputes to occur but they're usually short. Still, some industry insiders, Dudek added, think these "dark" periods are about more than just money.

"The latest disputes have been described as broadcasters as an attempt by cable and satellite services to force Congress to change the laws regarding retransmission," Dudek reported.

While WISN wasn't broadcasting on TWC, it remained free for those with an antenna and the station was live on other carriers like DISH Network, DirecTV and AT&T.


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