BALTIMORE, Dec. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. announced today that it has signed a retransmission consent agreement with McLeod USA, which will allow McLeod to retransmit the signal of KGAN, the CBS affiliate in Cedar Rapids, Iowa through December 31, 2009. McLeod is a cable provider which serves the Cedar Rapids and Marion city portion of the overall Cedar Rapids market. McLeod is currently able to provide cable service to approximately 60% of the homes in that portion of the market. Based on current capacity, McLeod could currently provide service to approximately 20,000 homes passed by Mediacom that are not already McLeod customers.
"Sinclair is pleased to have reached this agreement with McLeod," commented Barry Faber, Sinclair's Vice President and General Counsel. "Given the likelihood that KGAN will no longer be available on cable systems owned by Mediacom after January 5, 2007, this ensures another alternative for Mediacom subscribers in Cedar Rapids to continue to watch their local CBS affiliate. CBS 2 is also available over-the-air and from direct broadcast satellite companies, but we know certain consumers prefer to stay with a cable company and McLeod offers an alternative to Mediacom for tens of thousand of Cedar Rapids families. Although we are not releasing the financial terms of the agreement reached with Mediacom, we do note that we would be happy to do a deal with Mediacom on the same terms as were agreed to by McLeod."
Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc., one of the largest and most diversified television broadcasting companies, currently owns and operates, programs or provides sales services to 58 television stations in 36 markets. Sinclair's television group reaches approximately 22% of U.S. television households and is affiliated with all the major networks.
Forward-Looking Statements:
The matters discussed in this press release include forward-looking statements regarding, among other things, future operating results. When used in this press release, the words "outlook," "intends to," "believes," "anticipates," "expects," "achieves," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results in the future could differ materially and adversely from those described in the forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including and in addition to the assumptions identified above, the impact of changes in national and regional economies, successful integration of acquired television stations (including achievement of synergies and cost reductions), FCC approval of pending license transfers, successful execution of outsourcing agreements, pricing and demand fluctuations in local and national advertising, volatility in programming costs, the market acceptance of new programming and our news central strategy, our local sales initiatives, and the other risk factors set forth in the Company's most recent reports on Form 10-Q and Form 10-K, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. There can be no assurances that the assumptions and other factors referred to in this release will occur. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements.
