• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, January 7, 2010

Sinclair Broadcast Group has entered into a 1-year retrans agreement with Mediacom. It continues carriage of the signals of 22 television stations owned and/or operated by Sinclair in 15 markets to more than 600,000 unique Mediacom subscribers.

On the same day Mediacom completed the deal, it sent a blistering letter to a leading U.S. senator, charging that the retransmission consent movement is "harm(ing) the public interest" -- and seeking legislative intervention.

The letter from Mediacom Communications CEO Rocco Commisso to Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, chairman of a communications subcommittee, asks the senator to find a way to ensure that station groups do not continue their threats to pull stations off the air unless they get desired retrans carriage fees.

"If consumers are to be protected in the long run, not just for a period of weeks or months, it is essential that the existing retransmission consent rules be thoroughly examined and reformed," Commisso wrote in the letter.

"Consumers," the CEO added, "are being harmed both by the uncertainty created by broadcasters' threats to allow their signals to 'go dark' and, over the longer term, by ... increased costs." If cable operators continue to pay higher retrans fees, consumers could face higher cable bills, Commisso indicated.

Terms of the Sinclair/Mediacom deal were not disclosed, except that Mediacom has agreed to drop an FCC complaint against Sinclair.

Some 600,000 Mediacom customers could have been affected if Sinclair had opted to pull its stations as the two sides battled over how much Mediacom would compensate Sinclair for carriage rights.