Sinclair, CBS Renew Affiliations

Sinclair and CBS have struck a deal to renew Sinclair's 15 CBS affiliations.

The stations reach approximately 7 million households, according to CBS.

The deal covers all the agreements expiring in 2015 and early renewals for those expiring in 2016.

Ray Hopkins, president of CBS Television Networks Distribution, said that it got "full value" for its programming.

Sinclair executive VP Barry Faber said the transparency of the deal will help it with MVPDs as it seeks retrans payments that fully realize the value of its TV stations.

"[V]isibility on our network programming costs, and therefore positions us to appropriately price our retransmission consent rights in our negotiations with MVPDs as we move towards fully realizing the value of the programming offered by our stations," he said.

The major brodcast networks used to pay stations to carry their programming (to sell that reach to national advertisers), but ever since broadcasters began getting cash for carriage, money flows in the opposite direction. The deal's visibility did not extend to revealing how much money was changing hands.

The renewed stations are: WRGB in Albany-Schenectady, N.Y.; KBAK-TV in Bakersfield, Calif.; KFDM in Beaumont, Texas; KBOI in Boise, Idaho; WKRC in Cincinnati, Ohio; KRCG in Columbia-Jefferson City, Mo.; KDBC in El Paso, Texas; KVAL in Eugene, Ore.*; WWMT in Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo, Mich.; WHP in Harrisburg, Pa.; KTVL in Medford, Ore.; KTVO in Ottumwa, Iowa-Kirksville, Mo.; KHQA in Quincy, Ill.-Hannibal, Mo.; WPEC in West Palm Beach, Fla.; and KIMA-TV** in Yakima, Wash. CBS has also renewed its affiliation with KMEG in Sioux City, Iowa, a station to which Sinclair provides sales and other services.

(* Includes KCBY in Coos Bay, Ore. and KPIC in Roseburg, Ore.)

(** Includes KEPR in Pasco, Wash. and KLEW in Lewiston, Idaho.)

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.