MIDDLETOWN, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 6, 2006--Mediacom Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: MCCC) has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: SBGI) in the Federal Court for the Southern District of Iowa.

The lawsuit alleges that Sinclair violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by conditioning its consent to carriage of its stations in certain markets, such as Des Moines, IA or Mobile, AL, upon Mediacom's payment for carriage of Sinclair's stations in more than a dozen other markets. The ultimate result of this "tying" of Sinclair's stations would be to increase the price of cable television to consumers by millions of dollars.

"Throughout our retransmission consent negotiations, Sinclair has insisted that all of its stations in our footprint be bundled in a single package without consideration to the differences in the markets of the various stations. We believe this all-or-nothing scheme violates antitrust law," said Rocco B. Commisso, Mediacom's Chairman and CEO.

In recent years, Mediacom officials have been at the forefront of efforts to control rapidly escalating programming fees demanded by content providers. Rising programming costs have been largely responsible for increases in cable rates for consumers. Commisso has been an outspoken advocate for retransmission consent reform on Capitol Hill, at the Federal Communications Commission and in industry and public forums.

"We believe that Sinclair is holding our customers hostage in the Des Moines market in exchange for carriage of other stations in markets half a continent away. It is not fair to our customers who ultimately bear these costs and we have decided to draw the line by asking a federal court to stop these practices by Sinclair," concluded Commisso.

Mediacom Communications is the nation's eighth largest cable television company and among the leading cable operators focused on serving the smaller cities and towns in the United States. Mediacom Communications offers a wide array of broadband products and services, including traditional video services, digital television, video-on-demand, digital video recorders, high-definition television, high-speed Internet access and phone service.

CONTACT: Mediacom Communications
Marvin Rappaport
Vice President of Government Relations
845-695-2704
845-649-6756 cell

SOURCE: Mediacom Communications