Sinclair Broadcast Group Announces Expected End Of Carriage By Frontier Cable

SEATTLE and PORTLAND, Ore., Dec. 20, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Sinclair Broadcast Group ("Sinclair" or the "Company") (Nasdaq: SBGI), the owner of KOMO-TV (ABC in Seattle, Washington) and, KATU-TV (ABC in Portland, Oregon) announced today that it does not expect to renew its retransmission consent agreement with Frontier Cable ("Frontier"). As a result, Frontier will likely not be carrying these stations beginning on January 1, 2017. Frontier has also advised Sinclair that after December 31, 2016, Frontier does not intend to carry Sinclair-owned Tennis Channel to the hundreds of thousands of Frontier subscribers who currently receive this cable channel.

"We regret that our efforts are unlikely to result in us reaching an agreement with Frontier prior to January 1st," stated Barry Faber, Sinclair's EVP, Distribution & Network Relations. "We have successfully negotiated carriage for our ABC stations with all other video providers in these markets and secured coverage for Tennis in all of our recent retransmission negotiations.  It is particularly unfortunate that Frontier would choose to deny Tennis Channel to hundreds of thousands of homes that involuntarily became Frontier subscribers earlier this year as a result of Frontier's recent acquisition of Verizon FiOS systems in Florida, Texas and California. While we apologize for the inconvenience, we want to remind Frontier subscribers that there are other video distributor options, such as Comcast, DirecTV and Dish, available to provide their local stations' programming, plus they can always watch for free over-the-air.  We note that we do not expect the loss of carriage to have a material impact on any of the effected stations, given that Frontier subscribers represent less than three percent of the total households in each of Seattle and Portland. The expected loss of Tennis Channel subscribers is similarly small."   

Sinclair is one of the largest and most diversified television broadcasting companies in the country. Including pending transactions, the Company owns, operates and/or provides services to 173 television stations in 81 markets, broadcasting 482 channels and having affiliations with all the major networks. Sinclair is the leading local news provider in the country, as well as a producer of live sports content. Sinclair's content is delivered via multiple platforms, including over-the-air, multi-channel video program distributors, and digital platforms. The Company regularly uses its website as a key source of Company information which can be accessed at www.sbgi.net.

SOURCE Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.

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