Comcast, TV station owner buy negotiating time

[SolidSignal_Mike]

Comcast Corp. and Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. said Thursday they have agreed to extend through March 10 the agreement that allows Comcast to carry the stations owned by Sinclair on its cable-television systems.

The agreement between the Philadelphia cable-TV giant and Baltimore owner and operator of TV stations was to expire at 5 p.m. Thursday. The two companies haven't been able to reach a deal on how much Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA, CMCSK) should pay to retransmit Sinclair's stations.

Sinclair (NASDAQ:SBGI, SBGIP) owns or services in some way 58 TV stations in 36 markets. Comcast has 24.2 million cable customers, about 3 million of whom receive Sinclair stations.

Separately, Comcast said Thursday it has passed the 2 million mark in customers for its digital phone service and has 2.5 million of them. The company also has 11.5 million high-speed Internet customers and owns various programming assets, including cable stations and networks, and sports teams and arenas.

ref: http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/