NCTC Reaches Fox News Deal

Fox News Channel finalized another multiyear renewal agreement, this time with the National Cable Television Cooperative.

Under the deal, terms of which were not disclosed, systems reaching more than 3 million subscribers will continue to carry the channel, according to senior vice president of affiliate sales Tim Carry.

“We’re proud to renew our partnership with the NCTC and look forward to continuing to be a part of their systems’ dynamic lineups,” Carry said in a prepared statement.

The NCTC represents systems totaling some 14 million subscribers. NCTC members Charter Communications and Cable One are not governed by the new pact, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. An NCTC spokesman would only say that the agreement is “open to our members that have existing Fox News deals and meet those requirements.”

The co-op’s pact carries a similar escalating-license-fee structure to the deals struck earlier this fall by Cablevision Systems and DirecTV. Those agreements are said to carry monthly per-subscriber fees that average around 75 cents over the life of the contracts.

The new deal does not pertain to the business channel Fox News may launch next year.

Fox News officials declined to comment on the agreement.