DIRECTV says tonight that it has lost more than 200 local stations and NewsNation due to a carriage dispute with their owner, Nexstar Broadcasting. The blackout, which also affects DIRECTV Stream and U-Verse, may be the largest in industry history.
“Nexstar has a long track record of forcing programming outages in an effort to unnecessarily raise prices for everyone at the expense of the communities they are licensed and entrusted to serve,” said Rob Thun, chief content officer of DIRECTV. “We will continue to work with Nexstar to reach an agreement and will take all necessary actions to provide our customers access to their favorite programming while protecting them from unwarranted price increases,” DIRECTV said in a statement.
Nexstar has confirmed the blackout at its station web sites.
“DIRECTV/U-verse customers, (the local station) has been forced off your lineup, and important programming you pay for has disappeared,” says Nexstar.
Nexstar has local stations in such large markets as Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Denver. The broadcaster’s web site says its local stations reach 115 markets representing 63 percent of all U.S. TV households. To see a list of the Nexstar stations, click here.
The blackout could be a lengthy one because of the long-term feud between the companies. DIRECTV in March sued Nexstar, Mission Broadcasting and White Knight Broadcasting, alleging the three companies have violated anti-trust law in a scheme to pump up carriage fees for local network affiliates.
The satcaster, and its sister services, U-verse and DIRECTV Stream, have been without Mission’s 26 local stations and White Knight’s three stations since October due to separate carriage disputes. However, DIRECTV has maintained that Nexstar, which serves as the operating business for both station groups, has pulled the strings behind the scenes of the negotiations and forced the two companies to seek higher fees.
Nexstar, which denies that charge, also says only 159 stations have been removed from DIRECTV tonight. But the satcaster is apparently also counting the Mission and White Knight stations in the total.
The TV Answer Man will update this story if we receive additional statements or information regarding the dispute.
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— Phillip Swann
@tvanswerman
