As you’ve undoubtedly heard, FOX programming unexpectedly went dark for GCI customers in Southeast Alaska earlier this month. This is causing our valued customers to miss a number of their favorite shows, local news programming, and the longtime Sunday staple — NFL football.
Over the past few weeks, we have heard your concerns, and we share in your frustration with the FOX blackout. We have also seen conflicting, and sometimes inaccurate, information about the current programming situation circulating on social media and in news outlets, offering varying explanations and placing blame.
This begs the question: what is standing in the way of an agreement between GCI and FOX so Southeast Alaska can, once again, have access to FOX programming?
At its core, the answer to that question should be a simple one.
Each year, GCI negotiates numerous contracts with a variety of programmers so we can provide our customers with access to the television shows, movies and sports that they love. GCI pays a fee for every channel we carry, and every year those fees increase. Occasionally, regardless of your television carrier, blackouts can occur as a result of these negotiations. GCI tries to negotiate a reasonable rate that helps keep costs low for customers, but sometimes programmers propose costs that are unrealistically high. In those cases, when GCI cannot negotiate a more reasonable rate, we may choose not to renew our contract to carry that programming.
Unfortunately, in this case, the FOX blackout in Southeast Alaska is not a result of failed or stalled negotiations, and the solution is not clear cut.
GCI has carried FOX to our Southeast Alaska customers for years, most recently under a 2011 agreement that is good through 2018. But, on Nov. 8, with no prior notice, the owners of KJUD, the Southeast Alaska FOX station, and their new Lower 48 representative turned off that signal, claiming for the first time that the contract does not allow GCI to show FOX programming in the region.
That claim is false and totally contrary to how the parties have been operating under the current contract, until now.
The real goal behind this false allegation is clear. KJUD and their Lower 48 representative are effectively holding GCI’s Southeast Alaska customers hostage, using them as a bargaining chip, by violating the station’s own contract and withholding FOX programming to pressure GCI into an almost 300 percent increase across multiple stations statewide, including ABC and the CW that expire later this year.
In Alaska, that’s not called negotiating, that’s called robbery.
GCI strives to provide the best possible experience to our customers, but in light of the state’s economy and fiscal uncertainty, we cannot in good faith accept the station’s outrageous demand on behalf of our customers.
To our loyal customers in Juneau, Angoon, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Sitka, Wrangell and other impacted communities — we are sorry you’ve been cheated out of weeks of the programming you’ve come to enjoy and rely upon. We share in your frustration and we ask for your help in bringing this episode of attempted highway robbery to a close.
We ask that you contact your local FOX station, KJUD, and demand they bring back your local FOX programming on GCI cable. You can call the station directly at 877-304-1313, or email at scenters@youralaskalink.com.
With your help, GCI plans to resolve this ridiculous and unacceptable station quickly. In the meantime, you can access FOX programming over the air with an antenna, or you can stream many of your favorite programs online.
We appreciate your continued support and encourage KJUD and its Lower 48 representative to honor their existing contract and stop using GCI’s Southeast Alaska customers as leverage in a needless, and baseless, statewide programming dispute.
• Warren Russell is the vice president of GCI’s Southeast Regional Operations.
