Q. Is there anything new in the fight with DIRECTV and Tegna? I have been without my CBS station here in Spokane for a week now. Do you see anything that suggests it will end soon? — Teresa, Spokane, Washington.
Teresa, AT&T’s TV services, which include DIRECTV and U-verse, have been missing 60 Tegna-owned local stations since December 1 due to a carriage dispute with their owner, Tegna. Both sides have been relatively quiet in the last few days, choosing to stand by previous statements which blame the other for the blackout.
Update: DIRECTV & Tegna sign new carriage pact.
However, there is one thing that has happened that could offer a sliver of hope.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) has published a letter he has sent to the two companies, and FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, calling for an immediate end to the fee fight. Brown’s state has three Tegna stations in DIRECTV’s lineup, WKYC-TV in Cleveland, WBNS-TV in Columbus and WTOL-TV in Toledo.
See Amazon’s New Holiday Sales!
“Without access to local broadcasting networks, my constituents are unable to consume local news, entertainment, weather updates, traffic patterns, and other essential information,” Brown says in the letter. “In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, it is more important now than ever to ensure that local communities across the state have equitable and reliable access to the most up-to-date local health and safety recommendations via local broadcasts. Public interest would be best served if carriage is fully restored by the all parties involved as soon as possible…We must hold companies accountable for any practices that disadvantage consumers.”
You might suggest that a single letter, even one from a high-profile U.S. senator, won’t force two stubborn companies to settle their differences. However, from my experience in covering these fee fights, politicians sometimes issue a ‘call to action’ shortly before a carriage battle is resolved. The politician gets a tipoff that the two sides are close to a resolution, and then he or she urges an end to the fight. When the battle is resolved soon thereafter, the politician looks like he saved the day when actually the two companies were close to settling anyway.
That might sound cynical, but it’s politics, folks. And if you notice, Brown does not call for an end to the Nexstar-Dish fee fight, which also includes stations in Ohio. It could be because he knows that the Dish-Nexstar dispute is more likely to last for several weeks or more.
We’ll see soon if Brown knows something we don’t. Until then, happy viewing, and stay safe!
Have a question about new TV technologies? Send it to The TV Answer Man at swann@tvpredictions.com. Please include your first name and hometown in your message.
— Phillip Swann
Hi, the same thing goes for us in Arizona… they took away Channel 12 which is NBC and that is affiliated with other towns with another Channel. That is one of the channels also that has football on, etc.. We already pay enough with DirecTV and with Locast that you can get but they want donations monthly and they take off your Channel anytime they want causes a blackout also. Why on Earth would they do this now during a pandemic when we need to stay home and enjoy our TV!
Thank you,
Kim J.
If you had left channels 4,5,7,9,20, and 50 free like since the beginning of television we wouldn’t be holding this conversation now we pay $200.00+ just to watch news FCC and Public Service Commission caused this they can unbundle it and they should seriously consider it .At this point we’re paying for service we’re not getting. An you’re making a better case for us than we could.
Do you think the broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX) could influence in any way? It seems they would be concerned their content/advertising isn’t reaching their audience. I never read about them getting involved.
I’m sick of it! In the Jacksonville Florida we lost NBC and ABC almost three weeks ago with no end in sight!
Call and ask your congressional representatives to support the Modern Television Act. I already did. Right now AT&T, and other carriers cannot provide ABC, NBC or CBS stations in other markets for a given local market. This Act would change that. Without it, local providers can hold the carriers hostage to any price increase. My understanding is that TEGNA channels benefit from the retransmission by carriers (e.g., AT&T) and can charge higher prices for commercials due to higher viewership. It’s a win for TEGNA to have carriers retransmit their channels. For them to sharply increase the cost to carriers such ad AT&T is akin to blackmail. The Modern Television Act would keep this and other outages of this type from occurring in the future. You would get a CBS, NBC and ABC channel in another market. Not many would care about missing the local channel material.