Time Warner reaches agreement on WMTW access
Local ABC affiliate WMTW is back on the airwaves after settling a dispute with cable provider Time Warner.
The agreement ends a 10-day blackout that began on July 10 after Time Warner Cable and WMTW owners, Hearst Television, reached a stalemate in a discussion regarding how much the cable provider would pay Hearst for the rights to air 13 of its stations across the country, according to the Kennebec Journal.
"We have reached a long-term agreement with Hearst Television and our customers can expect their signals to be restored to our cable systems shortly," reads a statement from Time Warner.
Time Warner Cable did not release details of the agreement.
Time Warner claimed that Hearst had been seeking a 300% increase in payment for airing the 13 stations, but in a statement released last week, WMTW said that figure was inaccurate and that Hearst was only requesting "a reasonable fee relative to what [Time Warner] pays for other significantly less popular channels."
The blackout affected 230,000 households in the Portland-Auburn market. 170,000 households were able to view WMTW programming during the blackout using satellite services or digital antennas, according to WMTW General Manager Dave Abel.
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