Tribune Media Chief Executive Officer Peter Kern published an open letter to Tribune viewers and Spectrum subscribers on Monday:
Thank you for reaching out to Tribune and for your passion for our content. I wish I could respond to each of you individually on your particular comments about our dispute with Spectrum, but the volume of email makes that impossible.
We at Tribune Media are deeply disappointed that you have been unable to enjoy our top-rated news, sports, and entertainment programming via Spectrum’s cable systems. Throughout these negotiations we have worked tirelessly to try to make sure our programming was available to you on an uninterrupted basis.
Spectrum’s acts since the disruption began have given you a false picture of our negotiation. We are not asking for triple or double the rates for our programming. We are asking only for a fair deal, one that is comparable to what every other cable and satellite TV provider pays us for our content.
Spectrum, on the other hand, is a huge goliath of a company with over $43 billion in annual revenue and over $10 billion in annual profits—it is using its scale and all of you to try to pressure us to take less than a fair price. The reality is that what Spectrum is saying on TV and online about our negotiations is simply false.
Spectrum believes that as a much smaller company, we will give in to their tactics. Unfortunately, doing that would leave us with fewer resources to invest in programming for you. We have tried to take the high road – we have not called them names or accused them of anything. But, at our heart, we are an information company and we don’t want our viewers misinformed any longer.
We will keep working to resolve this situation and we will keep fighting to bring you great content. We want nothing more than to have a good working relationship with Spectrum and to get our channels back on the air at a fair price.
Thank you for your time, and for your loyalty to the programming we work so hard to bring you. We hope to have it restored soon.
Peter Kern
Chief Executive Officer
Tribune Media Company
