Optimum Blasts TEGNA’s Outrageous 30% - 50% Price Hike Demand

Key Terms

duopoly technical

A duopoly is a market dominated by two companies that together control most sales, pricing and customer choices for a particular product or service. For investors, a duopoly matters because those two firms can influence profits, competitive risk and regulatory scrutiny more than many small rivals; think of it like a town with only two grocery stores — their decisions on price, quality or expansion shape the whole neighborhood’s shopping and prices.

Optimum to TEGNA: We Will Not Let You Make Watching TV Unaffordable for Our Customers by Forcing a Price Hike 

LONG ISLAND CITY, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Optimum (NYSE: OPTU) today forcefully rejects excessive and unjustified demands from TEGNA, the broadcast provider behind certain local ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC-affiliated stations and the CW. TEGNA is pursuing egregious fee increases that are divorced from market reality, including a massive 30% hike for major network affiliates and a colossal 50% increase for the CW.

Rate Hikes Disconnected from Reality

TEGNA is attempting to drive up costs on two fronts: imposing unjustified premiums on major networks and exploding rates for lower-viewership channels like the CW. This pricing strategy ignores the current media landscape, where consumers demand value and flexibility, and creates a total disconnect between cost and value, underscoring how much today’s programming model remains broken and outdated.

“Optimum will always take a stand for our customers against broadcasters and programmers demanding significantly higher fees for the same content,” said Keith Bowen, President of News, Programming and Business Services at Optimum. “TEGNA is operating as if the market hasn’t changed in 20 years and its request is nothing short of egregious.

Broadcasters cling to an outdated, restrictive, and now irrelevant business model that places upward pressure on customer bills, forces them to pay for content they don’t watch, and deprives consumers of the choice they expect, and frankly, deserve. Enough is enough. TEGNA’s proposal isn’t just unrealistic, its predatory. We will not stand by while broadcasters and programmers attempt to use our customers as blank checks.”

Customers Shouldn’t Subsidize Broadcaster Mergers

These demands from TEGNA cannot be viewed in isolation; they are directly linked to the looming merger of Nexstar and TEGNA and a broadcasting industry that is rapidly contracting into a duopoly. In fact, Optimum’s negotiations with TEGNA and Nexstar– with expirations just one week apart – expose the dark side of broadcaster consolidation.

Added Bowen: "TEGNA is attempting to lock in skyrocketing rates now, effectively forcing Optimum’s constituents to pre-pay for a merger that will only reduce their choices. Optimum is taking this stand not just for today, but to stop a trend where broadcasters use the threat of blackouts to fund their takeover sprees. As broadcasters race to consolidate, they are leaving the consumer behind. Optimum urges policymakers to look closely at how these rate demands serve as a precursor to anti-competitive behavior.”

Optimum Stands Up for its Customers and Requests Good-Faith Negotiations

Consumers have been crystal clear: they want real choice, real value, and affordable options – not skyrocketing bills driven by broadcasters and programmers who refuse to evolve. At a time when families are watching every dollar, TEGNA is demanding double-digit hikes without offering a single improvement in content or service, and when content is available on other platforms.

Optimum refuses to accept outlandish price increases that would only serve to inflate customers’ monthly bills and accelerate a broken cycle that punishes viewers.

We are simply asking broadcasters and programmers, like TEGNA, to evolve with us. Optimum wants to create partnerships to develop new, attractive, and affordable viewing solutions that allow customers to select and pay for programming options for the content they want to watch.

In Summary:

• The Ask from TEGNA: Steep, bloated premiums on "Big 4" networks combined with price-gouging on the CW.
• The Reality: A market and consumers that demand affordability, not steeper bills for the same legacy content.
• Red Flags: Attempting to lock in 50% rate increases for secondary programming (the CW) while pursuing a merger that would already severely concentrate market power invites immediate and skeptical regulatory review.
• The Consequence: A broken model where broadcasters try to extract more money for every single channel, regardless of its actual market value, and merge to limit choice.

Concluded Bowen: "Optimum looks forward to working with partners who understand the realities of today’s economy and consumers’ viewing habits -- partners who recognize that the days of holding viewers hostage for higher fees, on both major and minor networks, are over."

Everything we said in January 2025 remains true today around this old, broken industry model.

For more information, please visit www.optimum.com/tv/onyourside.

About Optimum

Optimum Communications, Inc. (NYSE: OPTU) is one of the largest broadband communications providers in the United States, delivering high-speed internet, video, mobile, and voice services to approximately 4.4 million residential and business customers across 21 states. As a brand built for the future, Optimum is committed to reimagining connectivity and delivering exceptional experiences through next-generation technology and customer-first innovation. The Company also operates Optimum Media, an advanced advertising and data solutions business that enables local, regional, and national brands to reach audiences across screens with precision and scale. Additionally, News 12 – its award-winning hyperlocal news network – provides trusted, community-focused journalism across the tri-state area and beyond.

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Media Contacts

Press@Optimum.com

Source: Optimum Communications, Inc.