Cablevision's fight with Meredith Broadcasting in Hartford, Conn., has opened new fronts in St. Louis and Washington. The retrans-related rhetoric was ratcheted up last week, with Cablevision challenging the broadcaster's fitness to be a licensee and Meredith saying Cablevision was not telling the truth. The cable operator last week asked the FCC to deny Meredith's bid to buy KMOV St. Louis and perhaps look into whether the company was fit to own any TV stations. But Cablevision's true beef resides further east, in Hartford. Gannett is selling KMOV to Meredith-as part of a package deal-in response to an FCC mandate that it spin off that station to a third party (rather than to Sander Media) as part of Gannett's deal to acquire Belo. Cablevision also asked for the FCC to investigate whether Meredith is fit to be a broadcast licensee-a claim to which one might as well add, "Ouch."
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