WTHR, WBNS Off Of DirecTV, U-Verse
Dispatch Broadcast Group’s WTHR Indianapolis (NBC) and WBNS Columbus, Ohio (CBS) are now off of DirecTV and AT&T U-verse. In a statement, Dispatch said that it “has completed numerous retransmission agreements in the past 12 months at fair market rates without any service interruption. Unfortunately, after offering an extension last Friday to hopefully reach a fair market deal, the deadline to reach a fair agreement with DirecTV and AT&T U-verse has passed, resulting in the interruption of service …. We will continue to work towards a fair agreement with DirecTV and AT&T U-verse and hope to resolve this situation as soon as possible.”
DirecTV and Raycom last night agreed to a second temporary extension in their carriage agreement, preventing a blackout of Raycom’s 54 stations. The extension runs through Sept. 12.
Raycom Extends DirecTV Agreement
The broadcaster says it wants to ensure continued storm coverage and relief efforts so has moved the deadline for a new retrans deal with the satellite provider through Tuesday, Sept. 5.
DirecTV could lose more than 40 stations tonight due to a retrans dispute with their owner, Raycom. The current carriage pact between the companies expires at tonight at 11:59 ET and Raycom has turned the heat up with a sharply critical notice posted yesterday at its stations’ websites.
The satellite provider is up against a 11:59 P.M. deadline today with Raycom and is also facing losing two Dispatch Broadcast Group stations on Friday.
A federal judge in California has paused a trial in which the FTC is seeking $4 billion from AT&T and will allow the telecom to file for a partial judgment. U.S. District Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr. said there is a “substantial issue” in regard to the FTC’s calculations of its $4 billion “unjust gains” calculation. The judge gave AT&T attorneys two weeks to file briefings, further poking holes in that math.
Exclusives
DirecTV could lose more than 40 Raycom stations in the coming days, according to viewer alerts posted today at the station’s websites. “The DirecTV satellite system is about to drop us and break that critical link to our viewers,” reads the Raycom viewer warning. “We are currently working hard to make sure DirecTV customers continue to have access to [the Raycom stations] without interruption. But there is a chance they will not agree to a fair deal, and decide to drop [Raycom] from their system.”
Randall Stephenson will remain chief executive, while Chief Strategy Officer John Donovan steps up to run consumer units, including mobile, DirecTV, streaming service DirecTV Now and AT&T U-Verse. John Stankey, who has been running DirecTV, will oversee Time Warner.
The DBS service ended the quarter with 20.856 million subscribers. DirecTV added a net total of 342,000 subscribers in last year’s second quarter, and the 156,000 net loss in this year’s second quarter was by far the worst quarterly sub result for the DBS service since it was bought by AT&T.
It’s dominated by sporting events. The satcaster, which has a dedicated channel for live events in 4K (ch. 106), will air the Daniel Comier-Jon Jones UFC light heavyweight championship in 4K on PPV. The event, which will begin this Saturday (July 29) at 10 p.m. ET, will cost $69.99 for the 4K feed; the HD edition will be $59.99. In addition, starting Tuesday, DIRECTV has nine Major League Baseball games scheduled in 4K. They will all air on ch. 106.
In advance of a trial next month over the satellite provider’s sales and marketing practices, the FTC said that if found guilty, DirecTV should be required to put $3.95 billion into an account “to create a fund” that would “be used to provide redress to eligible customers.”
CBS News had it wrong when it reported that AT&T’s DirecTV was cheating customers with “bait and switch” tactics and overcharges over the past two years, AT&T told a group of Democratic senators who raised questions about the story. “Contrary to what is suggested in the story, AT&T is fully committed to honoring its deals, offers, and promotions—and AT&T meets that commitment every day.”
The two cable MSOs have rolled out ad campaigns/promotions targeting DirecTV’s DBS service and its DirecTV Now online video service.
The American Cable Association renewed its campaign to get the FCC to charge satellite TV companies Dish Network and DirecTV the same regulatory fees that it charges cable and IPTV operators. In comments sent to the FCC, ACA notes that the agency’s latest notice of proposed rulemaking proposes a 96-cent-per-subscriber fee on cable and telco operators in fiscal 2017, but only a 38-cent-per-sub fee for DBS providers.
DirecTV may be considering launching a YouTube-like TV channel that would display user-generated photos and videos, according to company documents filed with the U.S Patent & Trademark Office. The satcaster has filed for a trademark for a channel that would be called, My View, described as an online social networking service offering “user-generated photos and videos delivered on a dedicated subscription-based television channel.”
With AT&T’s core wireless business getting tougher and tougher, the telecom giant has looked to reinvent itself as the model of a next-generation media conglomerate, starting with the $49 billion deal to buy DirecTV in 2015. AT&T is trying to imagine a future where your smartphone is the center of the entertainment universe, and taking active steps to get there. That future, however, is not a sure thing, and AT&T has seen the growth of one of its marquee efforts stall in early 2017.
A CBS Evening News story focused on complaints from consumers about the promotional subscriptions and prices new customers agree to pay for DirecTV and Internet service, but, the consumers said, AT&T does live up to.
CEO Randall Stephenson vowed to “make some adjustments” with the marketing of DirecTV after a quarter in which “churn was up significantly” — especially among those who don’t buy it as part of a bundle. He attributed the weakness to competition from streaming services, as well as as cable companies offering with their triple-play offers, combining video, Internet and voice services, he noted. “We continue to be big, big advocates of the integrated bundle.”
DirecTV has come to terms on a new broadcast retransmission licensing deal with family-owned Lilly family-owned SJL Broadcasting, ending a blackout on six network affiliates in three markets. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The blackout, which started April 1, affected stations in Elmira, N.Y.; Erie, Pa.; and Honolulu.
DirecTV Loses 2 ABC Affils In Retrans Dispute
Manship’s two ABC affiliates — WBRZ Baton Rouge, La., and KRGV Weslaco, Texas,– went dark on DirecTV last Friday night. “After months of attempting to come to an agreement, DirecTV has failed to realize the importance of local news and entertainment and pulled programming from its lineup,” said Manship in a statement.
Manship Family’s KRGV Harlingen-Weslaco-Brownsville-McAllen, Texas, and WBRZ Baton Rouge, La., have posted notices on their websites that their signals could be pulled from the satellite service at 11:59 p.m. ET on Friday.
DirecTV has apparently lost 12 local channels in five markets due to a fee fight with their owner, Lilly Broadcasting. The channels affected in the dispute are: WSEE (CBS-CW) Erie, Pa.; WICU (NBC) Erie; WENY (CBS-ABC-CW) Elmira, N.Y; KMAU (ABC-MeTV) Wailuku, Hawaii; KHVO (ABC-MeTV) Hilo, Hawaii; and KITV (ABC-MeTV) Honolulu.
By now, it’s crystal-clear that DirecTV Now will not keep its promise that it would be available on Roku’s streaming devices in the first quarter. And while the live streaming service is available on Apple TV, Amazon’s Fire TV, smart phones, tablets and other platforms, Roku’s absence, and the missed deadline, has DirecTV Now customers (and potential customers) hopping mad, according to social media activity.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed court papers on Thursday indicating that it has reached a deal with AT&T and DirecTV to resolve an antitrust lawsuit that accused the companies of sharing information during negotiations to carry SportsNet LA, the regional sports network holding the exclusive rights to telecast live Los Angeles Dodgers games in the L.A. area. The proposed deal contemplates future restrictions on what MVPDs are allowed to exchange with each other.
Looking to soon own HBO outright, AT&T is already leveraging the premium network in a very aggressive way, offering customers who sign up for the higher tiers of its virtual MVPD service a free year of the network.
AT&T is negotiating a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department to resolve allegations that DirecTV executives improperly colluded with other pay-TV providers three years ago, effectively blocking carriage of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ television channel in Southern California. A settlement could come in the next two weeks.
DIirecTV Now, the live streaming service from AT&T,was hit with another outage on Sunday morning with dozens of channels blacked out. Since its debut on Nov. 30, 2016, DirecTV Now has been riddled with errors, and at least four major outages that blacked out the entire service. This outage now makes five.
The glitchy, twitchy DirecTV Now streaming service has its early customers twisting in outrage, but Sarah Perez reports that owner AT&T has no plans to offer refunds as yet. What’s worse, beyond venting in online chat forums, “customers found the only way to get help was through a hard-to-find chat feature,” where refund talk is squashed by reps.
