Sinclair Spat

Mediacom dismissed its appeal of a lower court ruling. The appeal was over its request to continue carrying Sinclair stations while its antitrust case against the broadcaster is pending. With the timing of the decision likely to come after a Jan 5 deadline for reaching a deal or losing the stations, “we thought it was a better use of our resources to focus on winning the underlying case, as well as our separate FCC complaint,” said Joseph Young, Mediacom svp, gen counsel. Young reiterated that the MSO believes it will prevail, while Sinclair gen counsel Barry Faber said the broadcaster hopes the MSO will dismiss its “frivolous” antitrust claim. — Mediacom plans to add IA-based CBS affil WHBF-TV to its Iowa City-area channel lineup, a pre-emptive move to guarantee CBS programming for its subs if a retrans consent agreement cannot be reached with Sinclair by Jan 5, the AP reported. MSO spokeswoman Phyllis Peters said the station addition is possible because Iowa City falls between transmitters for the station and Sinclair’s KGAN in Cedar Rapids, IA, and because the 2 aren’t considered competitors by the FCC.