Cordillera shot back at Time Warner Cable’s arguments in their...

Commission’s and Cordillera’s resources, punish Cordillera for refusing to accept a retransmission consent agreement that is inconsistent with marketplace conditions and bludgeon Cordillera into accepting substantially discounted terms,” the broadcaster said in a reply filing (http://xrl.us/bmshka). “TWC essentially argues that it satisfies the rules” requiring good-faith retrans negotiations “simply by going through the motions of negotiating, regardless of whether its negotiating practices or substantive positions reflect a good-faith desire to reach an agreement,” Cordillera said. Though TWC claims that no genuine market for retransmission consent rights exists and that those rights themselves are artificial, “TWC’s disagreements with its unequivocal legal obligations does not absolve TWC from its duty to negotiate agreements that reflect the marketplace,” Cordillera said. TWC’s “wild claim that Cordillera has assumed control over KZTV-TV Corpus Christi is meritless and shows just how far TWC will go in its bad-faith efforts to force Cordillera to accept its retransmission consent terms,” it said. Cordillera operates KZTV under a shared services agreement. Despite TWC’s arguments, the fact that both stations aired local news segments about the dispute isn’t evidence of bad faith or collusion, Cordillera said. KRIS’s general manager contacted KZTV-TV owner SagamoreHill Broadcasting’s CEO Louis Wall requesting to run the segment, Cordillera said. “The coverage aired on KZTV(TV) only after Mr. Wall exercised independent judgment and approval,” it said. “That news judgment had been confirmed by every major news outlet in the market, so it can hardly be evidence of bad faith.” TWC is wrong to suggest KZTV hasn’t capitalized on the dispute through increased ad sales, the broadcaster said. It said ad sales for January were tracking 45 percent ahead of a year earlier at the station, while KRIS’s sales looked to be down 39 percent.