Verizon FiOS TV customers have lost five Tegna-owned local network affiliates in a carriage row with the broadcaster. This is the second major carriage dispute for Tegna which has been in a three-month long blackout with Dish. (Tegna is also involved in a 12-month fight with Mediacom.)
Update: Verizon & Tegna sign new agreement.
The stations affected in the Verizon fight are: WUSA-TV, the CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C., WPMT-TV, the Fox affiliate in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, WVEC-TV, the ABC affiliate in Norfolk, Virginia, WGRZ-TV, the NBC affiliate in Buffalo and WCCT-TV, the CW affiliate in Waterbury, Connecticut.
Tegna and Verizon have been negotiating for a new deal for weeks and even approved a temporary pact at one point. But that short-term extension expired last night and Tegna pulled its stations when it could not reach a new agreement with Verizon.
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Verizon urged its affected customers to install TV antennas to continue watching their local channels. Without mentioning Dish or Mediacom, the telco TV provider also suggested Tegna is more likely to engage in carriage fights than other broadcasters.
“At Fios TV, we want our customers to see the best content on channels they love,” Verizon said in a post at its web site. “When content deals expire, we have to negotiate with content providers to be able to continue to carry their channels…We are trying our best to reach a reasonable deal with Tegna and hope Tegna will restore its channels to our lineup soon. We apologize that your service has been disrupted. This is not the first time that Tegna has removed their content from a TV provider. Tegna has a track record of removing their content when a TV provider refuses to accept their demands for unreasonable rate increases.”
Tegna’s statement said it offered Verizon another extension but was refused.
“We have been working for months to reach a fair, market-based agreement with Verizon based on the competitive terms we’ve used to reach deals with other major providers,” the broadcaster said. “We even offered Verizon an extension that kept our stations available to viewers through the holiday weekend. We are especially disappointed that Verizon has pulled access at a time when local broadcast stations are a lifeline, connecting people to the news, information, and entertainment they need and want most. We hope that Verizon realizes how important our stations are to their subscribers and works with us to reach a fair agreement.”
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“…We are especially disappointed that Verizon has pulled access…”
What a way to shift blame… Tegna determines who does and who does not carry, and has the power to remove the programs from the carrier’s systems at will. It was not Verizon that pulled access: it was Tegna. Period.
At least the customers in that area have the ability to get those channels off-air. I don’t have that luxury where I live: we are dependent on the cable providers to get us that content, because the networks do not transmit at a high enough power level (and refuse to add translators) to reach a large portion of their broadcast audience. IMO, the cable companies should be PAID to service the viewers that have no other recourse due to the broadcaster’s refusal to live up to their contractual obligations, rather than having to pay to carry the content!
I agree with Alex. Verizon did not pull the channels from the lineup. I was upset when 10 minutes into the FBI show on Tuesday disappeared.
Verizon is trying to shift blame to Tegna. What a joke!
Get an antenna FOOLS its free… quit whining like little 2 year olds..
NBC Buffalo/Verizon/Tegna, if you don’t want to lose a paying Verizon customer, you better resolve this dispute and SOON! This Is Us is in it’s final season and I better not miss it all just because you can’t resolve a little dispute! I can’t even go online to view anything on the NBC website unless I pay because I have to link to my cable provider and it won’t let me do it! Fix this NOW!
Regina, Verizon may care about losing a paying customer, but I can guarantee you TEGNA does not. They are worth millions. It is just another example of corporate greed
Just buy a cheap indoor antenna hook it to the antenna input on Your tv.. go to menu …Air…. hit program it will scan all the channels available… Now You will have to go to the air input on the tv and You can watch… all the Locals for Free and they are IN HD and a better picture than verizon… You can get a cheap decent antenna for 20 bucks… best buy insignia works fine.. best if placed near a window… What I get PO’ed about is Why doesn’t my bill go down when You turn off channels…HUH ??? Explain that please CRAPPY Verizon.
This may come as a shock to you, but antennas do not work everywhere. Some have overlapping signals that cause interference. You are correct to suggest an alternative, but it is not a solution for everyone
OHH Your a paying customer… hahahah isn’t everyone… I for one stand with verizon on this … screw tegna… You will pay more if verizon settles… buy a damned antenna and shut up.
Sean you are being extremely rude. Do everyone a favor and stop commenting!
Dish is still charging the same rate for local programming and since the fight with Tegna began we have been unable to get CBS that was a local station. The CEO of both DISH & TEGNA need to be replaced or an arbitrator needs to be involved. Do we have a good attorney who would be interested in upholding the people in a class action suite against Dish& Tegna?
I used to work for Gannett before the company split to become TEGNA for broadcasting and Gannett for the newspapers. They are greedy and will use whatever method they can get away with to make a profit. The terminate or lay off employees without a second thought. None of this surprises me.
I was very surprised and disappointed when local DC CBS Channel 9 became unavailable. Stephen Colbert misses me and I miss him. Also, I was just starting to watch Ghost On Demand and that content no longer available.
Can’t Verizon just bring in another CBS provider over the cable? If not, why not?
In the DC area, we go to the Richmond station affiliate of CBS
As I recall, cable providers are restricted in the broadcast channels they can carry to only those in the DMA where the customer resides. At least, that is the baloney excuse DISH used on me years ago when I complained they weren’t carrying my local PBS station. They claimed they couldn’t get a signal from their main antenna. They were told to use the repeater that was close to their facility but they refused, saying it served an area out of the DMA, despite it being an identical signal. (I should have initiated a class-action lawsuit agains DISH, but that’s a different rant.)
Anyway, for DC, there is a CBS affiliate in Baltimore, but Verizon won’t carry it because it’s out of the DC DMA, apparently, despite the cities only being 40 miles apart.
I can not put up an antenna because of hoa guidelines. I don’t really want to switch from FiOS, unless I have to. How can I get tv shows live on cbs on my Samsung smart tv? Any options I can pay for? Don’t want to watch on my phone, unless I have to, but that would be an option, too, I guess.
Paramount +.
I’m already paying Verizon a fortune for a pretty useless channel selection, why should I pay for Paramount+ to see local television stations?
Your HOA cannot restrict you from putting up an antenna. It may be in their covenant, and they may send threatening letters, but it violates federal regulations from the FCC (specifically the Over-the-Air Devices Reception Rule).
HOA by law cannot prohibit your having an antenna or dish to receive programming. Google the regulations on this topic.
Can Tegna pull their stations from streaming services like Hulu?
Yes.
Tegna is a rancid vile company. You only need to read the compliant filed by their largest shareholder against Tegna for racist employment activities and the FCC complaint filed against them for unfair bargaining practice by DISH.
Why are you eliminating CBS, Channel 9? You want an increase in fees? Why eliminate a channel for more fees? That’s not fair. Tegna is a selfish, greedy company pushing for more profit. That’s frankly wrong! You should be ashamed of yourselves. You are hurting a lot of people, including me, who look forward to shows on CBS. Again, you should be ashamed of yourselves.
Might be time to finally cut the cord with FIOS. We were planning to watch Amazing Race on CBS and couldn’t. 90% of what we watch nowadays is through streaming services (Netflix, Hulu, AppleTV).
Tegna can do the same thing with all the streaming services.
Sorry, I didn’t mean I’d seek out a CBS replacement on a streaming service, I meant if FIOS can’t provide CBS to me and I need to go without CBS then my need for having FIOS at all goes down.
Tegna can’t take away Netflix’s Netlix-produced content which is what I’ll end up spending more time watching as an alternative.
I’m not blaming FIOS over Tegna, just saying FIOS had better figure it out quick or they’re going to start losing customers, including this one.
Nowhere in any coverage of this dispute have I seen actual numbers on the current retrans fee vs the proposed one. Which leads me to believe that one side or the other knows they’re being a jerk and are suppressing the info. Or both. I mean, really, if what Fios claims is true, then show us the figures. If what Tegna claims is true, show us the figures. According to the DISH suit, Tegna’s demands would cost them $15billion in fees.
As soon as Fox43 was pulled from FIOS, I cancelled my FIOS TV. I kept the Gigabyte Internet, and we’ve now joined the cord cutters, free to subscribe and unsubscribe to video services as needed. In the process, I’ve learned a lot about Tegna and their greed…prior to this, I’d never heard of them.
The above comments are all True.
Why doesn’t the FCC step in and settle this.
Tegna is a Corrupt company. Why do they even exist ?
They operate like a Dictator in a 3rd world country.
NO one stands up to them.
Programmers like Tegna are HELL BENT on destroying TV
as we have known TV since it began.
What are they trying to accomplish except to make a few CEO’s RICH.
These wicked providers are doing a good job of eliminating TV.
Better keep your DVD’S handy.
They are going to be our only choice soon.