KTBS, cable provider in dispute over payments

[cablewithaview]

A showdown is brewing once again for cable TV subscribers in parts of Northwest Louisiana.

Cable provider Suddenlink and KTBS haven't been able to reach an agreement on whether to pay the station in return for carrying its programming. Without an agreement, KTBS would be removed from the lineup next Wednesday.

Suddenlink cable subscribers in Bossier City are seeing a message on their cable system that urges them to contact KTBS to keep the station on their cable lineup.

KTBS wants Suddenlink to pay it a penny a day for each subscriber.



"They pay everyone else for their products," Station Manager George Sirven said. "What we're asking for is one penny per day, per customer in return for the product that we provide."
Suddenlink spokesman Pete Abel said the company wants to keep KTBS on the air, but the station is making an unreasonable demand. Suddenlink said the costs of paying for KTBS would have to be passed on to the cable company's customers.

"With a monopoly on broadcasting ABC programming in this area, KTBS has been granted free taxpayer-subsidized spectrum, and now they want to charge for it once again," Abel said in a statement to the station's news department.

This kind of dispute isn't a first for cable subscribers in Bossier.



In February 2005, they lost programming from local NBC affiliate KTAL over a similar dispute with then-cable provider Cox Communications.

Bossier City officials went to court to force the cable system to put KTAL back on its system.

"We argued in the last case, under the franchise agreement we had with Cox Communications at the time (that) they were required to carry the basic channels," City Attorney Jimmy Hall said. "We tried to enforce that agreement and found the law is federally pre-empted by the FCC."
Both sides eventually reached an agreement and KTAL was put back on the cable system.

The Bossier City Council recently voted to allow cable competition.

Discussions are continuing between Suddenlink and KTBS 3.

Cities that would be left without ABC programming if an agreement is not reached between KTBS and Suddenlink are Bossier City, Minden, Sibley, and Idabel, Okla.

Additional areas would maintain ABC programming, but on another network affiliate.


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