Sinclair, Mediacom: Don’t be grinches

Watching cable TV provider Mediacom slug it out with Sinclair Broadcasting Group is a little like watching two Grinches battle for the last can of Who hash. It's tough to cheer for either side.

Instead, we simply hope this feud does not stop the Orange Bowl from coming for thousands of Hawkeye fans. We urge the two companies to come to their senses for the sake of their customers.

Sinclair, which operates KGAN-CBS 2 and KFXA-Fox 28 in Cedar Rapids, is demanding more money from Mediacom in exchange for carrying its broadcast stations on cable. Mediacom has so far balked at the demand. And it looks like a rerun of a 2007 fight between the firms that knocked Sinclair channels from Mediacom for five weeks.

Sinclair warns that if a deal isn't reached by Thursday, it will pull its two stations from Mediacom's lineup. That means Hawkeye backers who subscribe to Mediacom may not get the Orange Bowl matchup between Iowa and Georgia Tech, which will be broadcast Jan. 5 on Fox. Beyond that, Mediacom subscribers may miss NFL playoff games and scores of other popular programs.

The Gazette operates under the same local corporate umbrella as KCRG-TV9, so we understand the importance of disputes over “carriage fees,” or what cable and satellite providers pay to broadcast stations for the right to air programming. These struggles could impact the profitability for local TV stations in the years ahead. We get Sinclair's motives.

What we don't understand is the use of negotiating tactics that could inflict unnecessary collateral damage on consumers who pay plenty to watch what they like on TV.

Using a special moment for Hawkeye fans as a bargaining chip goes too far.

And while both sides share blame for this sorry situation, we think Sinclair missed a golden opportunity to let cooler heads prevail this past week when it flatly rejected Mediacom's offer for a three-month truce. The pause for reflection had the backing of University of Iowa President Sally Mason, but still, Sinclair refused to call a halt to the standoff.

Now, U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack, a Democrat whose district includes Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, is urging the Federal Communications Commission to intervene and stop Sinclair from carrying through on its threat. He's joined by members of Congress from Alabama, where the same corporate battle could back out the Crimson Tide's BCS title game appearance in some parts of the state.

Clearly, this has gotten out of hand.

We urge Sinclair to rethink the three-month extension offer and give Hawkeye fans and other viewers a break. Maybe, like the Grinch, the companies can find it in their hearts to back off and hash this out without harming consumers caught in the crossfire.