MCNBRIEFS

Time Warner Cable Signs
Retrans Pact With Meredith

NEW YORK — Time Warner Cable said it
reached a retransmission-consent agreement in
principle with Meredith Corp. on July 31, avoiding
a blackout of four broadcast television stations
in Kansas City, Mo.; Nashville, Tenn.; and
Springfield, Mass.

Meredith had extended Time Warner Cable’s
retrans rights for the channels to July 31 while the
two parties hammered out the finer points of the
deal. Terms were not disclosed.

The stations involved were KCTV-CBS and
KSMO-MyNetwork TV in Kansas City, WSHMCBS
in Springfield and WSMV-NBC in Nashville.

BendBroadband Buys Chambers

BEND, ORE. — BendBroadband closed its deal to
acquire Chambers Cable in neighboring Sunriver,
Ore., with plans to start a major upgrade of the
tiny system.

Chambers Cable has about 3,500 subscribers in
the Oregon communities of Sunriver, Crosswater
and Caldera Springs. The sale, terms of which
were not disclosed, was closed on July 31.

Bend, which has about 35,000 customers in
a dozen communities in central Oregon, said it
plans to upgrade the entire Chambers system to
860-Megahertz capacity. Construction is expected
to last about 14 months.

Chellomedia to Buy MGM Networks

LOS ANGELES — Chellomedia, the international
content arm of Liberty Global, is buying 13 MGM
Networks channels in Europe and Southeast Asia.

MGM will
retain its network
businesses
in the U.S.,
Canad a , the
U.K. and Germany,
as well
as its joint-venture
interests in
Brazil and Australia.

Chellomedia will get MGM Networks’ channels
in Spain, Turkey, Israel, Benelux, Poland, India
and Southeast Asia, along with the pan-EMEA
Channel and its associated feeds.

Chellomedia also gets the remaining 50% of
MGM Latin America, which Liberty Global and
MGM have operated as a joint venture since 1998,
and the balance of another joint venture in Central
Europe.

The MGM Networks transaction will increase
Chellomedia’s footprint to 382 million TV households.
Barclays Bank PLC, acting through its investment
bank, advised Chellomedia.