retrans blackouts

Dozens of TV stations owned by Tegna, most of them NBC and CBS affiliates, have gone dark on DirecTV in a carriage dispute. The companies failed to reach an agreement before a 5 p.m. PT deadline Thursday. The outage will immediately affect roughly 5 million customers in markets across the U.S.

For starters, Tegna and DirecTV had a carriage dispute in 2020that led to a 19-day channel blackout before the two sides finally reached a new deal. The disagreement was over how much the satellite service should pay to carry Tegna’s signals, just as it is now. But Tegna has been involved in several other fee fights over the last few years. The company clearly has no compunction allowing its channels to go dark if it helps get the best deal possible. Likewise, DirecTV this year had a 10-week blackout battle with Nexstar, a two-month dispute with Newsmax, and still has ongoing fights with Mission Broadcasting and White Knight.

Phillip Swann: FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced two rule proposals designed to “empower” consumers during channel blackouts caused by carriage disputes between TV providers and broadcasters. However, the proposals would actually “empower” the broadcasters, perhaps triggering even more blackouts. Her initiative is another example of how politicians in Washington are detached from reality when it comes to governing emerging TV technologies.

Earlier this week, DirecTV lost rights to Nexstar-owned locals, including ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC, because of a contract dispute. Now DirecTV has announced that customers affected by the blackout will receive a one-time $10 credit. The catch is DirecTV , U-Verse TV, and DirecTV Stream customers have to apply for the one-time credit as it will not be automatically included.

Cox Media Group stations in nine markets have been blacked out to Dish TV subscribers because of a retransmission fee dispute, effective Monday. Dish said that one issue is Dish is allowing subscribers to opt out of local stations as part of their pay-TV service. Dish says Cox wants Dish to pay fees for those customers. The dispute affects Cox stations in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Dayton, Eugene, Jacksonville, Orlando, Pittsburgh and Seattle. Cox Media Group is controlled by Apollo Global Management.

Paducah Television, based in Providence, R.I., operates stations, in Lincoln, Neb.; Cape Girardeau, Mo.; and Providence, and doing business as Standard Media, said Dish refused offers from bit and was insisting on significant rate reductions.

Mission Broadcasting, which operates 25 network affiliates spanning Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Indiana, New York and a dozen other states, has been pulled from DirecTV and U-verse pay TV platforms. The skirmish marks another pay TV blackout that involves Nexstar Media Group, which manages the Mission stations.

The blackout of Nexstar Media stations in households served by Verizon Fios is putting $6.7 million in retransmission and distribution fees per month at risk, according to an analysis by S&P Global Market Intelligence. Nexstar’s retransmission agreement with Fios expired last Friday and the two sides were unable to reach an agreement on an extension. Above, the markets affected by the dispute.

The New Year rang in with a bit of a whimper on the retransmission consent front, with the American Television Alliance estimating that blackouts in 2021 — those periods when stations go dark as deals expire — were about one-third their number in the previous year. But distributors won’t have much time to celebrate, as the traditional deal cycle suggests that 2022 could be another record year for broadcast service disruptions.

The station group and satellite TV provider have failed to reach a new carriage deal, so Dish subscribers in 42 markets have lost access to Scripps stations.

As expected, the ongoing impasse between CBS and AT&T is wreaking havoc on WBBM’s already low ratings. The blackout of CBS 2 on DirecTV, DirecTV Now and U-verse cable systems appears to have cost the CBS-owned station more than a quarter of its viewership.

Many DirecTV and AT&T U-verse subs awoke Thursday to find that Nexstar stations were no longer available. The broadcaster claims the stations were “abruptly removed” by the distributor, while AT&T said it had hoped to prevent a blackout and “even offered Nexstar more money to keep their stations available.”