Retransmission Negotiation Support Article and FAQs
Article Date: 11/20/2020
Hawaiian Telcom is currently in Broadcast Retransmission Consent negotiations with Gray Media, the corporate owner of TV station KGMB (CBS), KHNL (NBC), KFVE, KSIX (Telemundo Hawaii), Antenna TV, Circle TV, ESCAPE TV, and GRIT TV. We’re negotiating hard for fair retransmission fees so we can reduce the impact on our Hawaiian Telcom TV customers' bills.
Our existing agreement is set to expire on 12/31/2020, and we continue to do all we can to prevent a blackout of these channels.
Channel Name | Channel Number |
KGMB (CBS) | Ch. 7 / HD Ch. 1007 |
KHNL (NBC) | Ch. 8 / HD Ch. 1008 |
KFVE | Ch. 6 / HD Ch. 1006 |
KSIX (Telemundo Hawaii) | Ch. 13 / HD Ch. 1013 |
Antenna TV | Ch. 18 |
Circle TV | Ch. 45 |
ESCAPE TV | Ch. 46 |
GRIT TV | Ch. 47 |
Like other Pay TV providers, Hawaiian Telcom must routinely negotiate with TV broadcasters so that we can continue to carry their channels in our line-up. We have successfully negotiated hundreds of agreements with many cable and broadcast channels over the years.
Below you’ll find an Overview and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) regarding current broadcast retransmission consent rules. They describe in greater detail how broadcasters continue to use outdated federal laws to their advantage and how TV stations' blackout strategies have impacted consumers across the country and here at home.
Thank you for your patience and understanding as we continue with negotiations. And Mahalo for being a highly valued Hawaiian Telcom customer.
Retransmission Consent Overview & FAQs
WHAT ARE RETRANSMISSION CONSENT FEES?
Retransmission (or retrans) consent fees are the payments that Pay TV providers, like Hawaiian Telcom, make to broadcasters to carry their signals. If we do not agree on these fees, the national broadcast networks - ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox - can potentially pull their signals, resulting in channel blackouts for the customer.
Consumers should be aware that:
The rules governing retrans fees are part of the 1992 Cable Act.
These rules were written at a time when most of us had only one choice for pay TV service and the Internet was still in its infancy.
Today, we have a variety of ways to watch programming, but our video rules are still based on the old model of only one Pay TV provider.
WHO ARE THE BIG BROADCASTERS?
The “Big 4” networks are ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX. They provide programming, such as morning and nightly national news shows, some daytime dramas, prime time programming, and late night shows. The programming is then shown by their owned and operated (“O&O”) stations or their local affiliated stations, like Lilly Broadcasting (KITV) and Raycom (KHNL) here in Hawaii.
HOW DOES RETRANS LEAD TO BLACKOUTS?
Hawaiian Telcom wants to give our customers the programming they love. To do so, we either have to pay the increased fees networks demand for retransmission (which can adversely affect customers’ bills) or risk a network blackout.
WHY SHOULDN’T CUSTOMERS SWITCH TO ANOTHER PAY TV PROVIDER?
Any provider a customer switches to will face the same kind of blackout threats. In fact, the American Television Alliance reports that in the last five years, 80% of TV markets in the U.S. have experienced at least one local broadcast blackout. In Hawaii, customers of Oceanic Time Warner, Dish Network and DirecTV have experienced three (3) major dispute impasses during the past several years resulting in blackouts totaling nearly 500 days.