The threat of a New Year’s blackout of dozens of Tribune Media television stations on Charter Communications’ Spectrum pay-TV service increased on Monday as contract talks between the two companies showed little sign of progress.
More than 6 million homes nationwide — including 1.5 million in the Los Angeles region — would be affected by an outage that could begin as early as 9:01 p.m. Pacific time Monday.
In Los Angeles, Spectrum customers who wanted to watch KTLA Channel 5’s popular coverage of the Tournament of Roses Parade on Tuesday might be out of luck — unless there is a New Year’s Eve breakthrough in the negotiations. Viewers also might miss KTLA’s highly rated morning newscasts.
The two companies have been squabbling over fee increases that Tribune Media has proposed for rights to retransmit the signals of 33 Tribune TV stations in Charter Spectrum markets. The Chicago-based broadcaster also wants Charter to pay more to carry Tribune’s cable channel, WGN America, in the Spectrum pay-TV packages.
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