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After nearly three weeks off the air due to corporate greed contract disputes, both KVIQ (the local CBS affiliate) and KIEM (NBC) are back in the channel lineup for local Suddenlnk subscribers. 

On Thursday afternoon, a man named Brad Ayers, who is the senior director of government affairs for Suddenlink’s parent company, Altice USA, sent an email to local stakeholders announcing the ceasefire.

“I am pleased to report that Altice USA reached an agreement this afternoon with Cox Media Group which will return KVIQ (CBS) and KIEM (NBC) to Suddenlink programming in your area,” Ayers’s email stated.

The two corporations blamed each other in the dispute. Earlier this month, Cox alleged that Suddenlink “unfortunately opted to place their customers in the middle of their negotiations.” Suddenlink, in turn, issued its own statement, blaming Cox Media Group for jacking up customers’ fees and “pulling its networks” from TV lineups in six markets, including Humboldt County.

On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors addressed the issue, agreeing to send letters to federal lawmakers. Rep. Jared Huffman blamed corporate consolidation. 

Sean Takata McLaughlin provided the following statement late Thursday:

We understand that an agreement has been reached between Cox Media Group and Altice that will again allow for retransmission of Cox Media Group (CMG) owned stations KIEM (NBC) and KVIQ (CBS) over the cable systems in Humboldt County (Eureka DMA) as well as five other markets and eight other TV stations across the nation. Altice owns the cable system operating as Suddenlink that provides TV, internet and telephone service in the Cities of Eureka, Arcata, Fortuna, Ferndale, Blue Lake and Trinidad as well as areas of Humboldt County from Scotia to Big Lagoon.

“Humboldt County sent a strong letter to our Congressional delegation calling for policy changes that would return jurisdiction to local governments. The letter also called for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reconvene a Localism Task Force to consider the harms of media consolidation and lack of local accountability in the information ecosystem. At the State Legislature, Access Humboldt is calling for an audit of cable TV and local broadcasters performance during the pandemic - for the purpose of finding solutions to close the digital divide. Our goal is univeral access to open secure networks that meet local needs and interests - esp: public health and safety; education; economic and community development; culture and arts; and civic engagement.

“On behalf of our local governments, Access Humboldt will continue to seek ways to avoid such a problem in the future. And we will also ask both Suddenlink (Altice) and Cox Media Group’s stations KIEM (NBC) and KVIQ (CBS) to be accountable to our local community as much as possible.”  

On a related note, today Access Humboldt joined with national groups in asking that President Biden quickly name a fifth FCC Commissioner to fill the agency for the work ahead. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has jurisdiction over broadcast TV and cable TV, and much harm has occured through that agency during the past four years. The FCC bears responsibility for the policy failures we see across our media and broadband internet landscape.

Finally - we ask our State Legislature to reform the failed regulatory regime under the Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act, which eviscerated local jurisdictions’ authority to negotiate with absentee owners of critical communications infrastructure.