• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, October 9, 2006

Mediacom, the country's eighth-largest cable operator, said it has filed suit against the Sinclair Broadcast Group, charging it with trying to illicitly extract payment to carry its stations in over a dozen markets.

Mediacom said that Sinclair--which operates 58 stations in 36 markets and is the 13th-largest station group per Broadcasting & Cable--violated antitrust law by offering free carriage of stations in some markets (Des Moines, Iowa and Mobile, Ala. were cited) if Mediacom would pay to carry stations in more than 12 other markets.

If the face-off results in Sinclair yanking stations from Mediacom markets, it could impact network ratings as well as the local and national ad markets.

Mediacom charges that retransmission payments will result in price increases for consumers. This argument is similar to the one MSOs have made for years regarding cable channels: Larger carriage payments result in higher cable bills.

A call to Sinclair was not immediately returned.

"We believe that Sinclair is holding our customers hostage in the Des Moines market in exchange for carriage of other stations in markets half a continent away," said Mediacom Chairman-CEO Rocco Commisso in a statement.

In Des Moines, Sinclair operates the Fox affiliate, while it runs the ABC and MyNetworkTV stations in Mobile.

The standoff is another example of the increasingly contentious battles between station groups and cable operators over retransmission consent, in which station operators want payment from MSOs for the right to offer their local channels. CBS Corp., which operates 21 local CBS stations, has been the most visible proponent of retrans remuneration.

The outcome could reshape the industry. Time Warner Cable says it has not paid to carry a local channel since 1991.