PORTLAND – Time Warner Cable and SInclair Broadcasting have reached a tentative agreement on retransmission fees, meaning WGME-TV (Channel 13) will continued to be carried on the local cable system.

Time Warner announced the agreement in principle this evening and said it expects to work out a final agreement in the next week.

That ensures that CBS network programs, including Sunday’s New England Patriots-New York Jets football game, will be seen by cable viewers on Channel 13. Time Warner had said its contract with SInclair, the owner of WGME, would have allowed it to pick up the network signal from another station through the end of Feburary, but local programs would have been blocked on the cable system.

The two sides had been arguing over rights fees for weeks. WGME had been running a scroll on some shows saying that the station would be pulled off the cable system and encouraging viewers to contact Time Warner to urge that a solution be reached.

Sinclair owns 28 stations that are carried on Time Warner Cable.

 


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