• Associated Press via MSN, Monday, January 22, 2007 11:45 AM

Mediacom Communications would accept terms similar to those Sinclair recently gave Time Warner Cable to settle its dispute with Sinclair over retransmit charges. On Jan. 6, Sinclair yanked 22 of its stations from Mediacom in 13 states when the contract between the two companies expired, leaving more than 700,000 cable subscribers -- 250,000 in Iowa alone -- without cable access to network-affiliated stations.

Documents filed earlier in the dispute show a difference between Sinclair's asking price and Mediacom's offer of about $1 million. Rocco Commisso, Mediacom's chief executive, says the company is pleased that Time Warner's viewers "did not have to endure the same blackout of the Sinclair stations that Mediacom customers have gone through the past two weeks." Now that Sinclair has reached a long term deal with Time Warner, whose terms presumably reflect the current market for retransmission consent, Commisso wants the same deal for Mediacom.

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