Cablevision, Tribune Media Reach New Content, Media Agreement

Cablevision Systems Corp. and Tribune Media Co. on Thursday said they have reach a broad-based, multi-year content and media agreement. Along with renewing rights to distribute the 42 local TV stations operated by Tribune Media to Cablevision's Optimum TV customers in New York, Hartford; Conn. and Philadelphia, Cablevision also acquired Tribune Media's 2.8% interest in Newsday Holdings LLC. This makes Newsday a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cablevision. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Cablevision retained use of Tribune Media's TV listing and movie data from Gracenote, which provides programming information for the Optimum interactive guide, DVR recordings and video-on-demand content on set-top boxes and the Optimum app. Cablevision will launch the media company's new general entertainment cable network, WGN America. Shares of Cablevision are up nearly 40% in the year to date, outperforming Tribune Media, down nearly 40%. The S&P is down more than 6%.