By Staff
from staff reports
The &#8220Desperate Housewives” are safe so far.
Cable company Mediacom and Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of Pensacola's ABC affiliate WEAR, have come to an agreement to extend their negotiations over rebroadcast rights until Jan. 5.
Mediacom said the extension will allow negotiations to continue so that both parties can reach a longer-term agreement.
The extension agreement came just in time, before Mediacom's transmission of the WEAR signal was set to expire at midnight Dec. 1.
Sinclair, which owns TV stations in 11 other markets threatened by its lack of a deal with Mediacom, has said it wants more money for the retransmission rights for its signal.
Mediacom had balked at the price, which it said in TV ads was &#8220millions of dollars.”
Sinclair offered to refund customers $100 if they switched to DirecTV, a satellite provider, so that customers would not miss receiving the WEAR signal.
In other markets, Sinclair stations were also offering free antenna to customers.