A contract dispute that had threatened to disrupt a New Year’s Day tradition in Los Angeles was averted late Monday when Charter Communications and Tribune Media agreed to a short-term contract extension to give the two companies more time to hammer out a new distribution deal.
Facing a looming New Year’s Eve deadline of 9 p.m. Pacific time, the 11th-hour truce delayed at least until Wednesday afternoon the threat of a blackout of Tribune stations, including KTLA Channel 5 in Los Angeles, from Charter’s Spectrum cable television service. Without a deal, hundreds of thousands of Spectrum customers in Southern California could have missed seeing KTLA’s popular broadcast of the Tournament of Roses Parade — a tradition in many Southern California homes.
The new deadline for a contract is 2 p.m. Wednesday, according to the two companies. The deadline extension suggests that both sides have made progress in the negotiations.
Stamford, Conn.-based Charter and Chicago-based Tribune Media — which owns KTLA and 32 other television stations in Charter markets, including KSWB Channel 5 in San Diego — have spent the last few days in a tense standoff as they haggled over details of a new agreement to allow Charter to transmit Tribune Media’s station signals. The companies have been wrangling over a proposed fee hike by Tribune Media.
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