MCCC-Sinclair

Sinclair still hasn’t decided whether it will enter into binding arbitration with Mediacom to resolve their retrans spat. Gen counsel Barry Faber said the broadcaster is taking a while to consider arbitration, which was a recommendation by the FCC’s Media Bureau. "It’s very unusual for a business to give up the decision-making process to an unrelated 3rd party," he said during a conference call Tues. If Sinclair did agree to it, it’s very possible the parameters it would require would be different from Mediacom’s, Faber added. Sinclair pulled about 22 of its stations from about 700K Mediacom subs at 12:01am Sat. "The parties do not appear to be moving any closer to getting a deal done. The current situation is one that may continue for a long time," Faber said. He criticized Mediacom’s claim that Sinclair doesn’t care about the citizens of Iowa and the MSO’s attempts to have the state legislature intervene. "It’s a desperate gambit to somehow obtain legislative help for a problem they can’t solve on their own," he said.