KARK To Be Dropped From WHECO Cable Systems?

This from KARK.com:

"Open Letter from the General Manager of KARK to Cable Customers living in Hot Springs, Pine Bluff, and Camden:

Dear Cable Customers:

KARK is strongly committed to serving the public and keeping you informed. You may have seen our information crawl stating that KARK may not be on your cable system at year end. That is True.

On December 31st, cable customers in the above locations may lose access to KARK and NBC programming at midnight. Our retransmission agreement with WEHCO for all their cable systems in our viewing area will expire, and we have been unable to come to terms with your cable company for the continued carriage of our station. See below for an exact list of the name of your cable company.

Cable customers living in Hot Springs, Pine Bluff, and Camden have several choices for replacing the services you currently receive from your cable company, including video service from Dish Network or DirecTV.

WEHCO, like all cable and satellite companies, makes payments to the companies that own and operate programming networks. They pay the owners of the programming channels monthly fees, ranging as high as several dollars per month for the right to carry the programming. Your cable company has made it very clear they do not want to pay any fees for the rights to carry KARK. You should also know that WEHCO owns the following newspapers: Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Arkansas Camden News, and Arkansas Sentinel Record in Hot Springs.

We truly regret the inconvenience this dispute may cause subscribers living in Hot Springs, Pine Bluff, and Camden. We will continue to work hard at providing the very best local news, weather, sports and public affairs programming to our viewers, no matter how they might view our signal.

Thanks for your support and keep watching KARK!

Rick Rogala
Vice President & General Manager
KARK-TV"

DCG comments: I live in Prescott and I subscribe to the cable service which is owned by WHECO media and for the past few weeks KARK programming has been blacked-out by programming from KTAL, the Nexstar NBC affiliate in Shreveport. One can only assume eventually KARK will be gone from Hope Community TV also. And we down here in Southwest Arkansas and on cable could be dealt a double blow IF Nexstar demands payment for the KARK signal AND the KTAL signal.