Letter: Congressional Delegation Sends Unified Appeal to Mediacom/Sinclair on Behalf of Iowa Consumers

CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION SENDS UNIFIED APPEAL TO MEDIACOM/SINCLAIR ON BEHALF OF IOWA CONSUMERS

Dear Mr. Commisso and Mr. Smith:

We are writing on behalf of our constituents, the up to 250,000 Iowa consumers who are currently unable to receive signals for KGAN, the local CBS station in the Cedar Rapids area, and KDSM, the local Fox station in the Des Moines area.

We understand the representatives of Sinclair Broadcasting and Mediacom Communications have been engaged in significant negotiations to arrive at a new contract and new pricing structure for broadcast of the Sinclair-owned stations over the Mediacom cable system for a number of months. We are pleased that a temporary agreement to continue service through the holidays was reached. However, because negotiations have continued to prove unsuccessful, and access to these stations has now been cut off, it is the consumers of our state who are being harmed by this unfortunate situation. Thousand of Iowans have been left with little recourse to the disruption of service.

Last Thursday, January 4, the Federal Communications Commission Media Communications Bureau issued a Memorandum Opinion and Order which stated in part:

Both parties could agree to final binding arbitration by the Media Bureau. We note that, if both parties agree to final binding arbitration by the Media Bureau, we would require Sinclair to authorize Mediacom's continued carriage of its stations' signals during the pendency of arbitration pursuant to the terms of the November 30, 2006 agreement between the parties. In the alternative, this arbitration could be conducted through the American Arbitration Association. Although we would not have authority to order continued carriage in this case, we would encourage the parties to do so.

Given that negotiations stand at an impasse, binding arbitration would seem to present the parties with an alternative mechanism for resolving this dispute. We therefore urge that you consider the clear guidance of the Federal Communications Commission in agreeing to a process to bring the parties to an agreement without further harming Iowa consumers. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

http://www.tomlatham.house.gov/PAGES/PRESS%202007/PR07/01.10.07.htm