This is the first Sunday of the great satellite TV blackout and football fans who subscribe to DIRECTV and Dish are rip-roaring angry that they can’t watch some of today’s NFL games.
Update: DIRECTV & Tegna sign new carriage pact.
DIRECTV this week lost 60 Tegna-owned local TV stations due to a carriage dispute while Dish lost 164 Nexstar-owned locals in a separate fee fight. The Tegna and Nexstar station list includes Fox and CBS stations which carry the NFL’s Sunday afternoon games.
While some satellite subscribers may have been irked that they couldn’t watch their local news programs, or Blue Bloods, today’s loss of the NFL contests has them spitting blood. They are taking to social media sites, such as Twitter, to express their outrage.
“Dear Dish, Just wanted to let you know that here l sit, not being able to watch any football games because you all cut off my local channels. Signed, Pissed Off Customer,” writes ‘Bill Nickey.’
“My local Fox channel is NOT working due to your dispute with TEGNA. Will I be able to watch Rams vs Cardinals on NFL Sunday ticket or will I be subject to blackout rules. This is ridiculous!” laments ‘F11TZ on Twitter.
“Time to cancel @dish because can’t watch @NFL games on @FOXSports due to negotiations. Send your recommendations,” tweets ‘Gabriel Bolton.’
Sunday Ticket subscribers are particularly incensed because DIRECTV also must black out a game on the pay package if it’s airing locally on a Tegna station.
So @DIRECTV let me get this straight. I pay for DirectTV, I pay extra for NFL Sunday ticket but I still cannot watch the game of my choice because it’s on a station you don’t carry? You dropped the local station so why can’t I watch the game with the Sunday Ticket?” tweets ‘Greg.’
“Thx @ATT and @DIRECTV , somehow I am unable to watch the browns game today even with my wildly overpriced NFL ticket package you sell… how the hell can that be?” tweets ‘Paul.’
“DIRECTV is engaging in a pissing match during a raging pandemic,” tweets Tom Reed, a sports writer for the DK Pittsburgh Sports. “Will they risk their health to go to a bar to watch it? BTW, we have Sunday Ticket and are still blacked out.”
“We cannot watch the Titans-Browns game on @wusa9 and its blacked out on Sunday Ticket. Whats going on Tegna,” writes Bill Bride.
https://twitter.com/DMVSportsShots/status/1335647167948664832
Some fans are blaming either the satcaster or broadcaster in each dispute, but most seem to be calling for a pox on both their houses.
To all #Chargers and #Bolt fans who have @ItsOnATT or @DIRECTV & as such can't watch today's game, you can always go to a sports bar…oh wait…you can't because of COVID-19! #GreedyTegna reneged on the tweet below. Remember to thank @TEGNA & @DTLougee for their #CorporateGreed. https://t.co/FE0BwI5PBt
— Gil Sery (@gilsery) December 6, 2020
@DIRECTV and @TEGNA… I want my CBS back 🤬 pic.twitter.com/In9hQr6jdP
— Brandon Rowe 🤙🏻🐔 (@BRowe2001) December 6, 2020
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IF you are dumb enough to buy ANYTHING from the soon to bankrupt AT&T then you SO DESRVE the Frustration that you BOUGHT and PAID FOR…(NOW you KNOW what FAILED BIRTH CONTROL means !!!!!!!!!
First of all att is not going bankrupt and as I said in another comment these network disputes happen to all pay TV providers even streaming providers that offer live local channels so check your facts before making yourself look like an idiot.
Hmm, I’ve subscribed to MANY services where no such things happened because they negotiated their contracts without dragging their customers in on it, so check yourself on who the idiot is.
Dish, your contract is stupid and unfair, you deserve people like Netflix!!!
I’m a dish customer..
I wonder how AT&T would feel if I decided not to pay my bill for service I’m not getting. I will have to enter a “contract dispute”” I guess.
I’m done with this crap. Going to cancel my direct account if this matter isn’t solved within the next week.
Dish Network is the best deal around. Put up with it while they try to save you some money. It’s next star that’s being greedy don’t put it on dish Network.
According to Dish comments, Nextstar is demanding over ONE BILLION dollars to carry their stations. That is utter rediclious, and I am a Dish customer.
I want CBS back. This is a free station. Come on people. You make alot of money already.
You are exactly right CBS is a free channel anyway. They prices go up and down one month one price next month a different price.
Dish network customer couldn’t see the Saints/Falcon game so Goodbye Dish after 15 years!
Neither has dish considered
Reducing. Subscriber
Monthly dish
Rates when dish
Stations are temporarily
Or. Permanently lost.
Mr. Bowers, like yourself I have lost channels through Dish. I called Dish to cancel and I was informed that they have a program called Pause. You can get 3,6,9 months. Of course everything is ended. But you don’t have to return any of your equipment. The fee is 5.00 month. And I was told about Locast. I got the app on my tv and I got all my local channels and didn’t miss one football game. CBS,NBC,ABC,FOX plus you get other channels. And I live far from any major city so an antenna would not work. Hope this helps, have a great day and stay safe. Joseph K.
If I’m paying 4 the service that U supply then find the solution @#$#@.
Think it’s halaroius you get yourself upset over TV. Smarten up get an Ota there $15 at Walmart. Jesus problem solved. Or quite being a puss and Tonto the bar. Every provider everyear this happens to, its nothing new you cry babies.
I want my CBS channel back. I watch a lot of shows on this station. I am really upset about this.
Directv and DISH are just committing slow financial suicide with their intransigence. Just find a streaming service like Hulu, YouTube TV or Amazon Prime and go around them if you can afford it. I suspect a lot of you can if you can afford the Sunday Ticket in the first place. No use popping a blood vessel over it.
Streaming services don’t have local channels of NFL network also the ones that do offer local channels can still be impacted by these types of disputes. It not just att and directv or dish that goes through this.
This would be all and good if Dish’s internet provider, Hughes Net, was worth a plug nickel. Only service I can get in my area and there is no way the service is good enough for streaming.
That’s exactly what I’m going to do because I can have several streaming services and still not pay half of what I got to pay for satellite TV
If you have directv call and ask for a lcc antenna it’s free and allows you to get local channels blacked out by tenga or go to Walmart and pick up a cheap digital antenna. Att will give you a 20 off for 1 month discount on your dtv, att tv or uverse TV service if impacted by tenga dispute.
Corporate Greed
You shouldn’t be watching NFL games anyway. They are traitors to our country. Watch anything but the NFL.
Well that’s the stupidest thing I’ve read all day.
Just get an OTA antenna (over the air) and pick up local channels for free.
It’s not rocket science people!
This would be great if you live in a city but rural areas don’t have this option. You act like it’s a no brainer but some of us it is impossible.
Yes i live in a rural area with no access to high speed internet. Most of my favorite shows are on the local channels that are gone from Dish. I still have another year on my contract. Dish needs to fix this! I signed a year contract for a specific package & now my stations are gone. If not fixed there will be no reason i would ever sign another contract with Dish!
I can’t DVR the game and fast forward the commercials with OTR. That is why I pay the ransom to DTV. Personal opinion is that the CBS NBC ABC FOX stations beholden to tegna should drop tegna for greed. And during the stay home stay safe time we are in I would say Tegna is price gouging and should be held accountable like anyone of us say jacking up the price of water or a chainsaw after a hurricane.
I don’t know anything about Direct TV but Dish has an over the air gadget for their receivers. My local channels come over the air via a leaf antenna. I don’t pay a dime for local channels and it doesn’t affect me when Dish and the locals are battling. But you really don’t even need the gadget for local channels. Hook up an antenna to the antenna terminals on your TV and keep the remote that came with the TV handy. You can switch between satellite service and local, over the air, channels by hitting the HDMI button for satellite and the TV button for locals – at least on my TVs. It’s really simple. You can’t do anything about the other missing Dish channels, except switch providers, but locals should never be a problem.
Good post. The local channels have been available over the AIR for over 60 years, probably closer to 70 years. People have gotten soft with cable as they think it is the only way to watch local channels. Very simple solution as you stated.
Thanks for the suggestion. I was using 2 tvs to get my programs. I’m now back to one. I should have thought of this. Thanks again!!!
Jon B is right. We all need to be patient and let Dish (my provider) and DirectTV fight this out and either do without or, if you can, put up an antenna. As frustrating as it might be, complaining to your provider and not Nexstar or Hearst or whomever the content owner is and demanding that the stations come back will get us back into the cycle of rate increases.
The true villains here are the OTA stations who make $$ from the ads they show us and then turn around and want to charge these providers fees for the privilege of carrying their signals. Honestly, it should be illegal to charge for an OTA signal since they are using our airwaves. At least that’s the theory behind why you can get them for free if you are close enough with an antenna.
Ok I was dumb enough to sign a two year contract with Dish. I couldn’t watch the Royals on Fox sports all summer. Now the NBC channel where we get our local news, Wheel of Fortune (one of the few shows I like on tv) and Sunday Night Football. Thanks Dish as soon as my contract is up I am getting off Dish!!! I have been lied to about this time and again. I left Directv for some of the same reasons likewise AT&T. TV nowadays suck except for sports and Fox news
I just talked to AT&,T. They gave me a sorry
20.00 off my next bill. It has been 7 days and I can’t see shows on FOX, NBC or ABC. This is ridiculous. I pay them too much now.
I don’t own an iPad, tablet or laptop. My minutes are limited. I have a desktop. We should not have use other means of we pay for cable
Katherine Thompson
I lost my NBC channel, so no Sunday night football, Denver / KC….but wait… on my guide a notice says, Watch your football game on channel 410 (DirecTV)…sure enough, there was the game! in spanish, yes, but the picture was perfect <3
I have Dish. They have eliminated the local CBS channel due to the current dispute. 5 years ago I bought an indoor OTA antenna that pulls in the local channels easily because the TV towers here are properly placed on Black Mountain and are beaming HD pictures throughout the Valley. Yesterday, I set up the antenna and was able to watch the Raiders @ Jets on CBS. I feel bad for those who are not in range of the towers or live in rural areas. The Dodgers and Lakers Channels are also not available on Dish due to these types of bickering over $$$. Having grown up in Los Angeles, I no longer have any emotional attachment to these 2 teams I grew up with. I say “Thanks” to the 2 greedy ownership groups because now when they lose I do not care, I also do not care if they win a Championship like they did this ***year. Many others are “blacked out” from these broadcasts and in about 20 years these teams will wonder why their fan bas has dwindled so much. Always the Dollars….always the $#@#$n Dollars…
Easy peasy. Just got off the phone from severing the ties. Including putting my foot down to be sure that I didn’t get billed for the NFL Sunday ticket, that I just added on this past Wednesday to ensure that I got the Denver Broncos at Kansas City Chiefs game. Pissed off doesn’t fully describe what my husband and I feel. After being with DirecTV for years and years, and living out in Northeast Colorado, we’ve relied on DirecTV forlocal news in the Denver metro area to keep abrest of things with his family’s area, as well as being able to get a decent picture to watch our football and baseball games. Not to mention each time I try to call and either cancel a certain package or rearrange a package, all they wanted to do was add on. So done. There’s way too many other platforms that we can pick from and are much much less expensive. Bye Felicia
You would think if they’re not providing the service you signed up for, it would make them breech of contract and let you drop service without a penalty ?
Dish and Directv, please keep the channels just don’t show the football games!
My contract is up with Dish this month anyway so I will be streaming everything from now on I will not be paying for TV except for what I paid to be streamed that’ll save me about $200 a month and I’m on a fixed income bye-bye satellite
I can’t DVR the game and fast forward the commercials with OTR. That is why I pay the ransom to DTV. Personal opinion is that the CBS NBC ABC FOX stations beholden to tegna should drop tegna for greed. And during the stay home stay safe time we are in I would say Tegna is price gouging and should be held accountable like anyone of us say jacking up the price of water or a chainsaw after a hurricane.
We have a contract with Direct TV and because of that, are unable to watch our ARIZONA CARDINALS! When the contract ends, we will drop their crappy service! With Covid and so little to look forward to, losing the home team televised games really sucks! Settle!
Just sayin, but if you cannot watch your football team on CBS, NBC, or ABC, then all you have to do is buy or make an antenna to plug into the antenna(cable) input on the back of your TV. CBS, ABC, NBC are free over the air in the USA and have been for over 60 or 70 years. That is what I do here in Texas since I have Directv and cannot watch CBS. Very easy fix. What pisses me off is I pay for the Sunday Ticket and since CBS is blacked out they still will not show the CBS game on Sunday Ticket.
How many times do other commenters have to explain to you guys that your “easy” fix does not work if you are in a rural area or an area like ours that has mountains between the actual TV station and our home. Those antennas do not work at all for those situations. If they did we wouldn’t be paying outrageous prices for our programming. Streaming is also out because of slow internet speeds.I’m sure there are ways to work around not getting it on satellite, if you live in or near a city or in a flat state like Texas. Many people do not have those options.Have also tried LoCast, which works for some programming but not all.
Sorry Linda. I guess I hit a nerve. lol. I grew up in RURAL PA ( back in the late 50’s), and we were unable to get any good signals for OFF AIR TV. My Father ended up going up the mountain next to our RURAL home and erected a short tower of about 15 or 20 foot. He installed a cheap antenna and then had to run about 200ft of the old school 300ohm flat wire from the antenna to the back of our TV. It is doable but does take some hard work. Just sayin’.
We should at least be afforded the opportunity to purchase a blacked out game the same way we can purchase a UFC fight. It would behoove the NFL to allow the fans to do this right now, during this pandemic especially when they have no one is sitting in the stands at the moment.
I filed complaint with the FCC against DiSH. The FCC needs to do somethingto protect consumers. DISH needs to be regulated. I lost locals and 3 out of 5 channels in tbeir superstations packags..WGN, KTLA and KWGN. Of course i have to pay full price because I have a bigus 2 year contract ..ridiculous