retrans

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.”

On or before Oct. 1, each full-power commercial television station must make an election between must carry and retransmission consent. In addition, although noncommercial TV stations do not have retransmission consent rights, they must send carriage notices to DBS (and other satellite operators) on or before Oct. 1 in order to obtain (or maintain) carriage on the satellite operator’s system.

Dish said Wednesday it could lose the signal for ABC affiliate WLNE Providence, R.I., due to a dispute with its owner, Citadel Communications, over carriage fees.

S&P Global’s 34th annual Radio and TV Summit last week addressed a range of topics, including the lack of consolidation following the FCC’s spectrum auction; the state of retransmission consent and reverse comp; and an overview of the good and bad news coming from the spot TV ad market.

They are predicted to climb to $12.8 billion, boosted by growing contributions from virtual MVPDs like DirecTV Now and Playstation Vue.

Cable and satellite operators want nothing to do with ATSC 3.0 and are staking out positions at the FCC squarely at odds with broadcasting’s 3.0 proponents.They want to regulate the transition to 3.0 and block broadcasters from using retrans to force them to carry 3.0 signals. But the broadcasters have strong counterarguments and an FCC chairman who is disinclined to regulate anything.

Hearst Television and Dish Network on Wednesday announced a multi-year agreement for carriage of the broadcaster’s stations in 26 markets across 30 states. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The Hearst stations had been unavailable to Dish subscribers since March 3. “We are grateful to once again have Hearst Television stations providing Dish customers the quality local and national programming which we invest so heavily to offer our local communities,” said Hearst Television President Jordan Wertlieb.  “We are thankful to Dish subscribers and to our supportive advertisers for their extraordinary patience during this prolonged process.”

Dish has been missing Hearst-owned network affiliates in 26 markets now for 52 days and the satcaster’s subscribers are taking to social media sites to vent their growing impatience and anger.

A new BIA/Kelsey estimate finds retransmission consent fees, increased election advertising in numerous states and double-digit growth from digital media offerings all contributed to a strong year for television stations.

Many industry executives now believe there is no end in sight to the Dish Network-Hearst dispute, and they cite the circumstances surrounding the companies to support that conclusion.

Every day last week, Fox extended its deadline for Charter to sign a new carriage agreement by one day. Monday’s D-Day became Tuesday. Tuesday became Wednesday, and so on.Fox and Charter aren’t commenting on the talks other than Fox’s daily deadline updates.

Fox has — once again — extended its deadline for a carriage agreement with Charter by one day. That means that every day this week, Fox has extended its threat to pull its channels from the cable operator by one day. It’s unclear if the series of extensions means the companies are close to an agreement, or Fox simply is leery of taking its channels off the nation’s second largest cable operator when spring viewership remains high.

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.

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.

Yes, it’s day 26 of the fee fight between the two mega-huge companies that have left Dish viewers without broadcast affiliates in 26 Hearst markets. And there’s no end in sight for the dispute that gets a little nastier with each passing day.

Raycom Media on Sunday, March 26, reached an agreement with AT&T U-Verse to restore Raycom Media stations to the AT&T U-Verse cable lineup in 23 markets. The stations went dark at 11:59 p.m. ET on March 15. “We are pleased to have reached an agreement that restores our Raycom Media station’s signals on the AT&T U-Verse system,” said Raycom Media President-CEO Pat LaPlatney. “We apologize to our viewers for this inconvenience, and appreciate their patience during the impasse.”

The broadcaster says the MVPD “appears to be using programming disruptions as an opportunity to switch AT&T U-Verse customers to its DirecTV service. When disgruntled AT&T U- Verse subscribers call to lodge a complaint, they are offered a subscription with DirecTV, the very same company as AT&T. In some instances, subscribers are also pushed to DirecTV NOW, a service that in many markets does not carry any local broadcast affiliates: a zero-sum game for subscribers.”

After the satellite service points the finger at Hearst, the broadcaster begins taking out ads and including information on its stations’ websites blaming Dish for not being able to resolve the now two-week old retrans standoff.

A Connecticut state lawmaker has stepped in to try to end a two-month retrans battle that has kept Meredith’s CBS affiliate WFSB Hartford, Conn., off of Altice USA’s Optimum cable system. Sen. Gayle Slossberg is spearheading a petition to have the FCC intervene in the impasse.

The multiyear content agreement covers CBS-owned TV stations and cable networks Showtime, Smithsonian Channel and CBS Sports Network

Unable to reach an agreement on a new retransmission consent contract with Raycom, AT&T U-Verse subs in 23 markets found themselves without their local Raycom stations late Wednesday night. Raycom says U-Verse has been harder to deal with since AT&T’s merger with DirecTV two years ago.

Hearst Television President Jordan Wertlieb has written an open letter to Dish Network in which he denies Dish’s allegation that Hearst is unwilling to negotiate an end to their now 11-day-old fee fight.

Dish Network and Hearst Television have ratcheted up their efforts to persuade viewers that the other side is to blame for the contract impasse that left subscribers unable to watch the broadcasters’ affiliates in 26 markets including Baltimore, Boston, Kansas City, and Pittsburgh.

The five-day-old blackout on Dish Network of 33 Hearst TV network affiliates in 26 markets might not be ending soon. Hearst released a statement to its viewers Tuesday, indicating the two sides aren’t even at the bargaining table for a new broadcast retransmission licensing deal.

Ted Stephens: “I am always a little bewildered by how mad some viewers get when a TV station is taken off of a delivery system. That doesn’t mean I don’t sympathize with the viewers. I get it that the subscriber feels caught in the middle — a pawn being penalized while the greedy corporations battle it out. The reason I don’t fully understand the reaction of those upset viewers is: We’re talking about free-over-the-air broadcast television. From the day broadcast TV was first introduced in the 1940s it was delivered to the home free over the air. All you needed was an antenna, and that hasn’t changed.”

Charter Communications and Univision are pushing pause on any potential station blackouts until a judge rules on motions for summary judgment in the ongoing retrans lawsuit between the cable provider and the network.

After a two-day extension, the group’s 33 stations in 26 markets are no longer available to the satellite provider’s lineup as retrans talks collapse.

Hearst Television and Dish Network have agreed to a 48-hour extension in hopes of concluding a renewal of their retransmission consent agreement for carriage of Hearst’s stations on the satellite TV service. The old contract expired this morning.

The broadcaster, which owns 33 stations in 26 media markets across 39 states, began telling Dish customers over the weekend that it might remove its signals from the satellite service “if negotiations between representatives of Hearst Television and Dish Network are unsuccessful in reaching a conclusion before March 1.

A new retransmission consent agreement that took effect Feb. 11 ended a blackout that began Jan. 17 and involved 8 stations. The stations were: WCYB (NBC) Tri-Cities, Tenn.-Va.; WCTI (ABC) Greenville, N.C.; KTXS (ABC) Abilene, Texas; KECI (NBC) Missoula, Mont.; KTVM (NBC) Butte, Mont.; KRCR (ABC) Chico-Reading, Calif.; KTXE (ABC) San Angelo, Texas; and KAEF (ABC) Eureka, Calif. Not included in the blackout were stations owned by Esteem Broadcasting that are operated by Bonten under JSA and SSA arrangements.

Sinclair Broadcast Group reached a new agreement with Frontier Communications, ending a blackout that affected the Tennis Channel and Sinclair’s ABC stations in Seattle and Portland, Ore. The deal also covers markets where Frontier now offers subscription video services after acquiring parts of Verizon’s FiOS business last year.

A month-long blackout of Northwest Broadcasting-owned affiliates on Cable One has ended, with the two sides agreeing on a new retrans deal. The agreement will restore affiliates in Idaho, Mississippi and Cleveland on the MSO. Terms of the deal were not announced.

A judge temporarily assigned to the Univision-Charter Communications retrans case said Thursday that she will issue an order that Univision’s networks and stations had to be restored on Charter Spectrum for seven days, expiring on Feb. 9, when the judge permanently assigned to the litigation is back in court. For those seven days that it is carrying Univision, Charter will be required to post a bond covering the actual market value of Univision’s programming, rather than the rates that Charter had been paying under its recently expired retrans contract. Univision said it “remains ready and willing to meet at any time with Charter Spectrum to engage in comprehensive, good-faith negotiations for the long-term carriage of our stations and networks.”

With Sinclair Broadcast Group’s blackout of two ABC affiliates on Frontier Communications in Seattle and Portland reaching the one-month mark, Frontier has begun offering free access to premium channels HBO, Showtime and Starz to affected customers.