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Hawaiian Telcom has filed a Federal Communications Commission complaint against Nexstar Media Inc. over a failure to extend its retransmission consent agreement during active negotiations, which resulted in five broadcast channels and one cable network going dark, the company said in a news release Wednesday.

Nexstar is the parent company to KHON2 (FOX), KHII (MyNetwork), CW, GRIT, Rewind TV and NewsNation.

Hawaiian Telcom said Nexstar’s proposed contract asks for a 70 percent increase over today’s rate.

In the last five years, Nexstar’s rates have increased nearly five times more than the rate of inflation in Hawaii, Hawaiian Telcom said.

Hawaiian Telcom said it continues to negotiate with Nexstar to maintain reasonable rate increases and ultimately, keep customer costs manageable.

But when the prior agreement expired on June 30, Nexstar refused to provide an adequate extension the would allow both parties sufficient time to negotiate a mutually acceptable agreement, Hawaiian Telcom said.

Nexstar did not respond Friday to a request for comment.

This month, more than 150 Nexstar-owned TV stations also went dark on DirecTV’s platform, affecting more than 10 million TV subscribers across the country.

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