Two million subscribers of Optimum pay-TV systems are going without 63 Nexstar Media Group local stations and cable network NewsNation due to a carriage dispute.The network and stations went dark at 5 p.m. ET on Optimum, which is owned by the U.S. arm of French telecom giant Altice. Like other pay-TV operators, Altice has struggled with cord-cutting and has articulated a view about the video business being less essential than it has historically been given growth in its broadband and wireless operations. Patrick Drahi, the European tycoon who runs parent company Altice, is burdened by significant debt and shrinking valuations for some of his key holdings.The impasse comes during a crowded period for college football and NFL playoff games. The CW, which is owned by Nexstar, also has the largest concentration of affiliates under the Nexstar roof, and has been putting up solid viewership numbers for primetime draws like WWE NXT and All-American.WPIX, the flagship CW station, is a significant part of the Optimum dispute given the pay-TV system’s heavy concentration in the New York Tri-State area. In all, 42 markets are affected by the fight. Along with New York, markets with at least 10% penetration by the local Nexstar affiliate on Optimum include Greenville, NC; Lubbock, TX; Alexandria, LA; Hartford, CT; Clarksburg, WV, according to a person familiar with the system map.Major markets including L.A. and Las Vegas also have Nexstar affiliates, though the total number of subscribers is fairly small.Nexstar said it has tried to engage in “good faith” negotiations with Altice since October. In a press release, the company said but Altice responded with demands for “special terms that are wildly out of step with both our longstanding relationship and the cable television marketplace.”New York sports network MSG, TV home of the NBA’s Knicks and the NHL’s Rangers, went dark on Optimum at the start of 2025 in a dispute that is continuing.“Altice has consistently made unreasonable and unprecedented demands of Nexstar, culminating with their decision to walk away from the negotiations,” Nexstar President and COO Michael Biard said. “We understand the difficulty of Altice’s financial situation, burdened as it is by billions in debt, but the solution isn’t to force Optimum subscribers to continually pay more while getting less.”In a statement provided to Deadline, Optimum accused Nexstar of demanding “exorbitant rates” for its programming. The station ownder is “using an anti-consumer negotiation tactic – tying local channels to less popular ones – requiring Optimum and its customers to pay for channels like NewsNation, which has essentially no viewership, in order to continue carrying Nexstar broadcast stations in various markets across the country,” the statement added.On any given month, Optimum claims, 90% of customers (more than 1.2 million) “never tune in to NewsNation.” That therefore makes it “unfair to force customers to pay tens of millions of dollars for content they never watch and hold them hostage to force carriage of broadcast stations.”
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