by justin strawser
NORTHUMBERLAND - WNEP-TV announced late Saturday via its Facebook page that they came to an agreement on the terms with Service Electric Cablevision Inc. (SECV) and there will be no disruption of their signal to their viewers.
Service Electric did not officially announce this, and only confirmed the agreement when someone asked whether a deal had been worked out on the Service Electric According to a reply to the commenter's question, "SECV has reached an agreement in principal with WNEP so we can continue to deliver their signal to you in Hazleton, Mahanoy City, Sunbury and CATV Service. We thank you for your patience throughout the negotiation process."
The cable company office was closed when a phone call was placed there at noon Monday.
WNEP's statement on the social networking page read, "WNEP-TV would like to thank all of our loyal viewers for their overwhelming support. We are roud to serve all of Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania."
Originally, Service Electric reported that WNEP wanted an "unprecedented 300 percent rate increase for the channel," but WNEP said their asking price would amount to about four cents a day from a customer's cable bill.
The sticking point between the two sides had seemed to be the fair market rate that Service Electric currently pays to carry WNEP programming, which, in turn, is passed on to the subscriber.
If the agreement had not reached by midnight Monday, by law, SECV would not have been able to carry WNEP's programming on its system.
WNEP began airing commercials Wednesday informing viewers that the station may be dropped from SECV systems in Sunbury, Mahanoy City and Hazleton, along with those on CATV in Danville. The station suggested viewers contact SECV to keep WNEP programming.
In a statement released Wednesday, Service Electric had said it has no intention of dropping the channel or its sister station, WNEP 2, which features local programming and a classic television show lineup, and were working hard to reach a settlement.