Charter Communications not carrying WRTV ...

... and the Indianapolis Colts are headed into the playoffs!
By FRANK PHILLIPS
frankphi@hotmail.com
The Brazil Times

Watching TV over the weekend wasn't as easy as ABC. Especially if you were trying to watch ABC on the Brazil cable-TV system Saturday night.

To the amazement of Charter Communications subscribers, at midnight New Year's Eve, just as the big ball began to drop in New York City, Brazil cable subscribers saw WRTV 6, Indianapolis, go dark – literally.

At 12:01 a.m. Jan. 1 Channel 6 went off the air in Brazil, thus denying local cable viewers the opportunity to watch ABC programming, including sports. Because there is no ABC affiliate in Terre Haute, viewers have to rely on either a very good antenna to pick up WRTV off the air or subscribe to the Dish satellite service to pick up the ABC affiliates in New York or Chicago.

Because of legal agreements, Dish does not offer viewers in Brazil the Indianapolis ABC affiliate. Meanwhile, Colts fans are holding their collective breaths, hoping that the Colts' playoff games won't be broadcast on ABC, if the contract wrangling between Charter and WRTV isn't settled before the Colts' next game on Jan. 14 or 15, depending on who wins next week's games.

Visits to TV networks' and the Colts' Web sites yielded no information as to which network would carry the Colts post season game on the 14th of 15th. A telephone call to the Colts was not returned Tuesday afternoon.

Both Charter Communications and WRTV are blaming the other guy.

Brian Posnanski, a Charter Communications spokesman, told The Brazil Times, “WRTV delivered an ultimatum” to Charter. “They decided to not allow us to broadcast their signal. They broke off negotiations.”

While the contracts between TV stations and cable-TV companies are confidential, Posnanski said WRTV's demands were 99 percent out of sync with other TV station contracts with Charter. Brazil has negotiated 67 similar agreements with Indiana and Illinois TV stations in the past year, he said.

A call to WRTV resulted in the switchboard operator playing a telephone message addressed to viewers of Charter Communications cable-TV. That message said Charter refused to renew its contract with WRTV. The station has reached agreement with most cable systems, the message said.

Meanwhile both WRTV and Charter say their companies are working to restore service.

If ABC does carry the Colts' post-season games, the big winner might be Dish network, which offers local stations plus ABC and other networks.