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Bright House Strikes Deal For Colts Game As Cable Dispute Continues

Bright House, LIN TV Battle Over Compensation

POSTED: 1:11 pm EDT October 4, 2008
UPDATED: 1:22 pm EDT October 4, 2008

Bright House Networks customers will be able to hear Sunday’s Colts game but they won’t be able to see as negotiations continue between the cable company and the owners of Indianapolis CBS network affiliate WISH-TV.

Bright House cannot carry the station or CBS programming without retransmission consent from WISH's corporate owner, LIN TV Corp. That consent expired at 11:59 p.m. Thursday, leaving about 125,000 Bright House customers without the station or its other stations in Indianapolis, WNDY, WIIH and LWS.

On Saturday, the cable company announced that it would carry an audio-only version of Sunday’s Colts game provided by Emmis Communications’ 97.1 Hank FM. The play-by-play audio will be broadcast on Bright House channel No. 2, said Buz Nesbit, president of Bright House Networks Indiana.

Most of Bright House's Indiana subscribers are in the Indianapolis area.

Bright House is operated by Time Warner, which is embroiled in a dispute with LIN TV involving all of LIN's stations nationwide.

WISH and other LIN TV stations are asking for less than a penny a day, per station, per subscriber from Bright House and Time Warner Cable, said Jeff White, WISH general manager. Local television stations customarily get compensation from cable companies.

White said LIN had been negotiating with Bright House for several months in hopes of reaching an agreement.

"Our offer is very reasonable of what we're looking for," White said. "I don't think there's any reason to pass anything on to the consumer."

"I'm extremely shocked and disappointed that LIN … would take this opportunity to remove their signal from our customers," said Nesbit. "I'm assuming they had to reduce the revenue to their clients because they lost a lot of eyeballs today."

"We're trying everything possible to get it worked out," White said. "They can hook up an antenna and receive us over the air … They can go to AT&T, DirecTV and Dish Network."

Talks between LIN and Time Warner/Bright House are expected to continue through the weekend.

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