Seahawks season opener may be harder to find after Comcast drops FOX affiliate KAYU over contract dispute

James Hanlon, The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.
·2 min read

Sep. 8—Seattle Seahawks fans who rely on Xfinity TV may not be able to watch their football team's season opener Sunday, after an agreement between Comcast and KAYU-TV Fox 28's parent company expired Friday afternoon.

Comcast's right to continue carrying the local broadcasting station expired at 2 p.m. Friday, according to Comcast spokesman Andy Colley.

Imagicomm Communications owns over a dozen local channels across the country, including KAYU in Spokane.

"KAYU-TV has a history of demanding unfair prices at the expense of the consumer and already charges a very high broadcast retransmission consent fee," Comcast said in a statement.

"KAYU-TV and its parent company Imagicomm Communications — are now targeting Xfinity TV customers in Spokane to extract even higher fees and have pulled its programming from them. We have made several reasonable offers to KAYU-TV and Imagicomm, but we simply cannot agree to the higher fees they're requiring in exchange for the same programming they offer today."

The statement indicated a willingness to negotiate "a fair agreement."

KAYU carries TV shows including "Kitchen Nightmares," "Special Forces," "The Masked Singer," "Lego Masters," Fox 28 News and, of course, live Seahawks football games.

A message on the station's website encourages customers to call Comcast to complain.

"You pay Xfinity for the convenience of having your favorite broadcasting stations bundled in one place," the notice says. "FOX 28 is one of four local broadcasting stations that you expect to be packaged in any of the bundles you pay for."

A post on Fox 28's Facebook page explains how to watch the channel's over-the-air signal for free.

"Switch your TV to Antenna and scan to see if you can receive FOX 28," the post says. "If you cannot, you can get a digital antenna and open a whole new free bundle of stations, including all the local stations and a crystal clear, high-definition FOX 28 signal."

The website includes a video with instructions for how to set up a digital antenna.

KAYU and Imagicomm did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

James Hanlon's reporting for The Spokesman-Review is funded in part by Report for America and by members of the Spokane community. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.