ORLANDO, Fla. — If you're on Bright House Networks, you may already have seen this: The cable company is blocking Hearst television stations, including WESH, NBC’s Orlando affiliate.
A financial dispute between Hearst, which also owns CW 18, came to a head, and, “In an extreme move, Hearst chose to remove their programming from our lineup,” Bright House said in a statement.
Cable companies pay broadcasters for the right to retransmit the signal on cable. Bright House, which is represented by Time Warner, claims Hearst is demanding too much money.
But WESH 2 station manager Jim Carter claims Bright House isn't willing to pay a fair price and it was Bright House that pulled the plug on WESH.
The dispute has Hearst stations disappearing off cable lineups across the country. In Orlando, Bright House replaced WESH with the NBC station in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
WESH is asking viewers to consider switching to satellite, another cable provider or even a digital antenna.
Neither side has said how long the dispute might continue.
WFTV
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/WZ5DBKQBMBGJTNYMRNUIFSQM74.png)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/ELPLRWP63NCRHM26PJTYO7KO6Q.png)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/ZRBUBVWFNJFXJP6ZQG2ANEROVE.png)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/EPITFP4YHRHSDBGVLWFOVKARXE.jpeg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/WQ27IEQX4ZCSHHOV5SDI3RPS5I.jpg)