Deal: FOX 40 and Spectrum Cable Owners End Four-Month TV Blackout

WICZ, Binghamton's FOX television affiliate, has returned to the Spectrum Cable system after a 125-day absence.

WICZ and its partner station, WBPN my8, were back on the Binghamton cable system Thursday evening.

Northwest Broadcasting, which owns the Binghamton TV stations, and Charter Communications, which owns Spectrum, reached an agreement after the four-month-long dispute.

Northwest's stations in Binghamton, Syracuse and several other U.S. cities vanished from Spectrum lineups on February 2.

In place of normal programming on the Northwest Broadcasting spots on cable, Spectrum ran a non-stop loop blaming the TV station owner for the standoff.

Spectrum's message claimed Northwest was "demanding huge fee increases."

Northwest Broadcasting president Brian Brady had told WNBF News Spectrum "forcefully took us down to cause this disruption to create leverage on us."

Spectrum provided different levels of refunds to some of its customers who complained about the missing channels. But customers who didn't call the cable company haven't received any money back.

It's not clear whether Spectrum will provide all customers refunds for the missing programming now that the dispute has been resolved.

Details of the agreement have not been disclosed.