A utility truck used by Charter Communications for their Spectrum services. (Courtesy photo)

Charter Communications has filed a federal lawsuit against the E. W. Scripps Company in an attempt to enforce a contract to carry one of its local television stations in the Las Vegas market.

The lawsuit, filed in Nevada earlier this week, accuses Scripps of trying to walk back a prior arrangement involving the distribution of its owned-and-operated Ion television channels on Charter’s Spectrum TV systems across the country.

The agreement covered all of Scripps’ Ion television stations, according to a heavily-redacted complaint made public by the court. The specific terms of the agreement, including financial conditions, were not revealed, but Charter asserts the contract allows it to distribute KMCC (Channel 34) on Cox Cable systems in the Las Vegas area, now that Cox has been acquired by Charter.

That term is incredibly important to Charter, because KMCC is the home for two major sports franchises in the community: The Stanley Cup-winning hockey team Vegas Golden Knights and three-time WNBA Champions Las Vegas Aces, whose locally-televised games are aired on the broadcast station.

Cox Cable has offered KMCC on its systems in the Las Vegas area since at least 2023, according to records reviewed by The Desk, but the agreement was negotiated separately from the contract that Charter negotiated prior to its acquisition of the company.

In court records, Charter said Scripps acknowledged that its earlier contract to carry Ion-owned local stations contained a provision that allowed agreements with acquired companies to carry over, but said the term was the result of a “drafting mistake.”

To that end, Scripps asserts that Charter has no legal right to carry KMCC through the prior agreement that was signed before it acquired Cox, and warned the company that it could face legal liability for copyright infringement for “unauthorized distribution” of the channel now that Cox Cable is transitioning to Spectrum TV.

Attorneys for Charter are now asking a court for declaratory relief that forces Scripps to honor its interpretation of the amended contract, saying the court’s involvement is necessary to avoid a potential copyright lawsuit filed by Charter in the future.

Charter spokesperson Andrew Russell declined to comment for this story, though Charter earlier gave a statement to Cablefax that said the company continued to abide by its prior agreement with Scripps concerning the distribution of KMCC, which is still available to subscribers.

A spokesperson for Scripps said the company was aware of the lawsuit but couldn’t comment because of it.

The lawsuit comes at a time when Scripps has made significant financial investments in capturing premium rights to sports events for its local broadcast stations and national Ion television network. KMCC shares the rights to Vegas Golden Knights games with KTNV (Channel 13), the Las Vegas ABC affiliate owned by Scripps, though KMCC’s carriage on local cable systems extends beyond the immediate Las Vegas market owed largely to its status as a channel without any network affiliation.

KMCC previously operated as the Las Vegas market’s Ion network affiliate until 2023 — the same year it started carrying Vegas Golden Knights games — and its distribution on Spectrum TV’s systems before the Cox acquisition was predicated on its status as an Ion affiliate, not an independent station, a source familiar with the matter told The Desk on Thursday. Spectrum is hoping to continue offering the channel on Cox Cable through its agreement to carry Ion-owned stations, rather than have to pay a different rate for KMCC now that it’s an independent station, the source said.

As an independent station, Scripps has started renegotiating carriage of KMCC under a similar agreement to that of its other stations that carry local sports, including a term that raises the per-subscriber fee it receives in some markets.

That demand has triggered at least two large-scale programming disputes this year — one with Comcast’s Xfinity TV in April, and the other with DIRECTV at the end of May — which the pay TV companies said was specifically linked to Scripps wanting more money for its channels that offered sports.

Adam Symson, the CEO of Scripps, denied local sports played a large role in its dispute with DIRECTV, calling the assertion a “false flag” and accusing the satellite and streaming platform of being greedy because of its private equity owners.

“Rather than rationalize their lineups and end the carriage and payment for a bunch of zombie channels owned by bigger multibillion-dollar conglomerates that have leverage over them, they are screwing with the consumer and what the consumer actually wants to watch, which is broadcast television, local journalism and local sports,” Symson said.

Symson asserted the same during a background conversation with The Desk two weeks later, accusing cable and satellite companies of wanting more money for themselves while depriving broadcasters of their fair share. He said Scripps has historically had some of the lowest per-subscriber rates for its channels relative to other broadcast companies, and was negotiating a new agreement with DIRECTV along similar lines. The two companies ultimately reached a new agreement in mid-June.

Programming disputes offer long-term relief for broadcasters in an era of declining core advertising rates — marketers are moving more of their budgets away from traditional TV and radio toward connected platforms that offer more-robust targeting abilities — though disputes with distributors like Comcast and DIRECTV often provide short-term pain.

Earlier this month, executives at Scripps acknowledged the company’s disputes with DIRECTV and Comcast weighed on its second quarter (Q2) earnings, resulting in a 9 percent year-over drop in overall revenue and a 16 percent drop in retransmission fee income.

Charter became the largest cable TV and broadband Internet provider in the country following its acquisition of Cox. The company is absorbing Cox’s operations in Las Vegas and other parts of Southern Nevada; before the acquisition, it had a smaller footprint in the state, primarily serving residents in Reno and Carson City.

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This story first appears at TheDesk.net, a premium source for original news and analysis on the business of media and technology.

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