Cox Media Group announced today it has reached a long-term carriage agreement with Verizon FiOS TV. CMG said, “This deal with Verizon, consistent with our long history of carriage agreements, […]
Verizon Fios customers in Boston, Pittsburgh and Providence, R.I., may soon lose their ability to watch Fox affiliate networks. The company recently told customers that it was negotiating with Cox Media Group, who owns WFXT, the Fox affiliate in Boston known as Boston 25 News. The contract between Verizon and Cox ends on Dec. 15, according to Verizon. When content deals expire, Verizon must renegotiate with content providers like Cox to continue broadcasting their programming.
Nexstar Media Group said it reached an new retransmission consent agreement with Verizon Fios, ending a two week blackout. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The dispute affected more than 3 million subscribers in 10 markets, according to Nexstar.
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.
Nexstar Media Group stations went dark in homes subscribing Verizon Fios at midnight on Friday as the two companies’ retransmission agreement expired without the sides being able to agree on an extension. Nexstar said that nearly 3 million subscribers and 13 of its TV stations serving 10 markets are affected.
The other shoe appears ready to drop for One America News Network, which lost its biggest pay TV carriage provider, DirecTV, back in April. The controversial far right cable network, known for its reporting of conspiracy theories and its avid support for former president Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” about bogus 2020 election fraud, sees a deal with its last major MVPD partner, Verizon Fios, set to expire on July 30.
Exclusives
Tegna on Saturday morning reached an agreement with Verizon Fios on a new retransmission consent contract. Five stations had been pulled on Wednesday, Jan. 5: WUSA Washington (CBS); WPMT York, Pa. (Fox); WVEC Norfolk, Va. (ABC); WGRZ Buffalo, N.Y. (NBC); and WCCW Waterbury, Conn. (CW).
Tegna stations in at least four markets were pulled off Verizon Fios Tuesday evening, with the station group and pay TV operator unable to reach agreement on a new broadcast retransmission consent contract. The blackout involves Tegna stations in Washington, D.C. (CBS affiliate WUSA); Norfolk, Va. (ABC affiliate WVEC); Buffalo, N.Y. (NBC affiliate WGRZ); and Harrisburg, Pa. (Fox affiliate WPMT).
Verizon Fios subscribers could lose access to programming from TV stations owned by Tegna in a year-end retransmission dispute. A potential blackout would mainly affect Verizon subscribers in the Washington, D.C., market. Tegna’s current agreement with Verizon Fios expires at the end of the year.
MSG Networks announced that it has completed a comprehensive, multi-year renewal of its distribution agreement with Verizon Fios. The new deal ensures Verizon Fios customers will continue to have access to MSG Networks and hundreds of exclusive, live games from the New York Knicks, New York Rangers, New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders, Buffalo Sabres and New York Red Bulls as part of their Fios TV packages and through MSG GO, the companies said.
Allen Media Group’s streaming platform Local Now is available for all Verizon Fios TV customers with the newest set top-box models. Customers can now watch Local Now on Fios ch. […]
People posting on Twitter reported having issues connecting with various online services in the region stretching from Washington, D.C., to Boston. That densely populated area includes key U.S. government services as well as major financial companies such as Fidelity Investments.
CBS Television Distribution reached deals to have Comcast’s Xfinity and Verizon Fios carry its Dabl ad-supported lifestyle network in 13 markets. ViacomCBS owns TV stations in those markets and broadcasts the network on their subchannels.
Law&Crime, a 24/7 true crime and live trial network, just launched on one of the largest cable providers in the United States — it’s now available on Verizon FiOS’s most […]
Beginning June 24, The Weather Channel will retirn to Verizon Fios TV customers on ch. 611. It will also become available via the Fios TV app later this fall. The […]
WUSA in Washington, D.C., WVEC in Norfolk, Va., and WGRZ in Buffalo, N.Y., have returned to the Verizon Fios lineup.
Tegna television stations in three markets — Washington, D.C. (WUSA-CBS), Norfolk, Va. (WVEC-ABC) and Buffalo, N.Y. (WGRZ-NBC) — went dark to Verizon Communications Fios TV customers on Monday at 5 p.m. ET, after the parties failed to reach a retransmission consent agreement.
‘Tis the season for cable carriage fights, with Dec. 31 a common expiration date for major deals, and the latest battle is brewing between Disney and Verizon FiOS. The media company has started airing ads aimed at the 4.5 million subscribers to FiOS. The spots carry the message “don’t lose your shows.”
New carriage contracts with FiOS, Atlantic Broadband and Google Fiber cover more than 3.6 million subscribers.
Univision is ratcheting up its criticism of Verizon for deciding to “withhold Univision news, information and services from their Hispanic subscribers” by dropping the network’s signal from its FiOS service in a carriage dispute.
In a surprise move, Univision was dropped from Verizon FiOS Monday at about 5 p.m. ET, where most of the 5 million or so affected customers are. The sides had been negotiating, but being dropped appears to have caught Univision off guard.
Family Entertainment TV said today the cable and satellite network has added Verizon FiOS (ch. 155) and Frontier Communications (ch. 155). FETV is currently on Dish Network (ch. 82), DirecTV […]
Verizon Communications is overhauling the lower-priced FiOS Custom TV bundles, and will now offer two basic packages — one with sports channels, and one without them. The new “skinny” TV packages, launching Sunday, come almost a year after ESPN and other programmers objected to the initial Custom TV packaging, under which all sports nets were available only in optional add-on tiers. ESPN had filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit against Verizon over the issue.
Verizon has been banished from the Magic Kingdom. Disney’s television networks and radio stations are refusing to accept ads for Verizon FiOS’ new slimmed-down cable TV package.
Verizon’s effort to break-up the cable bundle and offer consumers cheaper television options ran into a major hurdle Tuesday after Fox and NBC joined Disney’s ESPN to express their opposition to the move. With consumers increasingly shunning the cost of huge bundles of cable channels, Verizon on Sunday launched cheaper, skinny packages tailored around specific genres.
In an effort to battle streaming rivals, the FiOS Custom TV service will begin on Sunday, offering a base $55 monthly package that includes some customization.
Another storm is brewing between The Weather Channel and one of its biggest distributors. Last year it was DirecTV, which dropped the channel for three months. Now it’s Verizon FiOS, which abruptly removed the channel from its television lineup on Sunday night.
WFXT Boston Returns To FiOS Lineup
Verizon FiOS and Cox Media Group, the new owner of Boston Fox affiliate WFXT, settled their retrans dispute Wednesday night, restoring access to the station for Massachusetts FiOS customers following a blackout on Thanksgiving Day.
WFXT Goes Dark On FiOS Over Cox Dispute
Some football fans in Massachusetts and Rhode Island had to scramble to find alternative ways to watch the Eagles-Cowboys Thanksgiving game as the Fox station in the area, WFXT, which carries the matchup, went dark on Verizon FiOS at 3 a.m. Thursday, affecting 400,000 customers. The reason is awfully familiar — another retransmission fee dispute between Verizon and Cox Media Group, which bought the Boston-based station WFXT from Fox in June and embarked on renegotiating retransmission fees.
It’s still not close to TV Everywhere, but Verizon Communications is expanding live-TV streaming options to let FiOS customers watch CBS and Fox stations in several East Coast markets at home on tablets and smartphones.
When both companies launched their TV services, BlackBerry was cutting edge and the iPhone was still more than two years away. The emergence of streaming wasn’t obvious. Both companies are positioned to handle mobile demand, but expanding TV services is expensive and difficult to muster as demand stays depressed.
Verizon is having conversations with major programmers about how to bring its FiOS programming service to a national audience, sources say. Such a move would ape similar attempts by Comcast and Dish to gain control over TV channel rights that go beyond their existing footprint in the event the business goes through a radical shift.
The three-year deal includes retransmission consent for CBS Owned Stations on Verizon FiOS TV as well as increased carriage of CBS Sports Network.
Fox announced Thursday that its new national sports network — Fox Sports 1 — is set to bow Saturday with all major cable, satellite and telco TV operators, including late holdouts DirecTV, Dish Network and Time Warner Cable. FS1 will be distributed to about 90 million U.S. households, according to Fox.
With Time Warner and CBS locked in a nasty contractual dispute, leaving 3.2 million cable customers without the network, Verizon is beginning to benefit. The telecom giant, according to industry sources, has seen its FiOS subscription base rise between 5% and 15% in various neighborhoods compared to last year.
