Federal Appeals Court Sides with Time Warner Cable in Nexstar Contract Dispute

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A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit yesterday in Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. v. Time Warner Cable, Inc. (Case No. 12-10935) upheld a trial court's refusal to grant injunctive relief to Irving, Texas-based Nexstar, thereby, enabling Time Warner to retransmit television signals to its cable subscribers in remote markets.

The appellate panel ruled that Time Warner legitimately had a statutory license to rebroadcast the signals of  Nexstar's  television stations in Rochester, NY; Terre Haute, Ind.; and Wilkes-Barre, Penn., to subscribers in other markets, including Winston-Salem,  N.C., Cincinnati, Ohio, Louisville, Ky., Burlington, Vt.; Plattsburgh, NY; and Orlando, Fla. The plaintiff alleged in its July 2012, breach of contract action that Time Warner was not paying for retransmission of the signals and that it ran afoul of FCC nonduplication rules by, for example, broadcasting the same syndicated programming to its Winston-Salem subscribers at the same time as another station in the market.

The appeals court found the parties' retransmission consent agreement was broad and not geographically restrictive. Judge E. Grady Jolly concluded in the panel's opinion that the agreement gave "Time Warner broad authority to retransmit Nexstar signals on Time Warner stations." Moreover, the appellate panel ruled Nexstar failed to put Time Warner on notice concerning its alleged breach of the nonduplication rules.

Tip of the hat to Courthouse News Service for reporting on this decision.

Al Gore Sells to Al-Jazeera

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The financially-strapped, viewer-deprived Current TV cable network founded by former Vice President Al Gore this week announced it will be purchased by Al-Jazeera.

According to articles by NPR.org and The Huffington Post, the Qatari government-funded network plans to operate Al-Jazeera America from New York-based headquarters. The Arab-language news operation, based in Qatar, already offers Al-Jazeera English, which is available in Washington, D.C. and New York City, but scarcely accessible in the U.S.

Buoyed by its acquisition of Current TV, which reaches approximately 60 million homes through cable or satellite service, Al-Jazeera America plans to bolster its staff to 300 and open bureaus nationwide to join its current operations in New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles, according to the NPR report.

Although Al-Jazeera English will provide some programming, more than half of the network's shows will be produced in the U.S. The transition, however, may not be as smooth as the Qatari news operation may have hoped. The Huffington Post reported today that Time Warner Cable ("TWC"), which has carried the ratings-starved Current TV to roughly 12 million homes, will not make Al-Jazeera America available to its subscribers. The TWC decision was condemned as politically motivated and an act of cowardice by the founding director of the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University.

However, according to a tweet by a New York Times reporter, Al-Jazeera America is likely to benefit from Current TV's arrangement with other carriers, including Comcast, DirecTV, Verizon, A T&T and Dish.