DIRECTV vs. Nexstar: Did Nexstar Offer a Contract Extension to Avoid a Blackout?
By Phillip Swann
The TV Answer Man –@tvanswerman
TV Answer Man, is there anything new in the DIRECTV and Nexstar fight that has taken our local NBC channel away from us? What’s the latest update on this, please? — Katie, Tampa, Florida.
Katie, DIRECTV on Sunday night lost 159 Nexstar-owned local network affiliates when the carriage agreement between the companies expired. (The blackout also affects DIRECTV Stream and U-verse.) The TV provider refused to pay what Nexstar wanted in carriage fees under a new agreement.
Nexstar has local stations in such large markets as Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Denver (and the NBC affiliate in Tampa). To see a list of the Nexstar stations, click here.
What’s the latest in this fee fight, you ask?
The Memphis Commercial Appeal reports that Gary Weitman, Nexstar’s executive vice president and chief communications officer, says his company offered DIRECTV an extension of the old carriage pact so it could continue carrying the stations while negotiations continued.
“He (Weitman) said Nexstar offered DIRECTV an extension to a date of their choosing up to Oct. 31, while the two media companies continue negotiating and they ‘flatly refused,’ the newspaper writes.
And what does DIRECTV think about that?
“We offered an extension beyond football season and they offered one in the middle of football season when it would aggravate fans (if a blackout occurred then),” a DIRECTV spokesman countered.
The October 31 date mentioned by Weitman would fall in the middle of the NFL and college football seasons. A blackout undoubtedly would have upset more subscribers then than the current one in the summer when viewership is at its lowest.
But did DIRECTV make the right decision? You can offer your comments below.
Have a question about new TV technologies? Send it to The TV Answer Man at swann@tvanswerman.com Please include your first name and hometown in your message.
— Phillip Swann
@tvanswerman
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Of course Nexstar’s strategy was to allow the channels to continue right to the point where blacking out the channels would cause Directv the most complaints from customers. This is not the first time providers have used that tactic. Directv was right to say no thank you. I have no idea which side is being unreasonable in this latest dispute but this information leads me to believe Nexstar is more the problem .
It is all about money. Since Nexstar is in debt by buying up all of the TV stations plus the advertising is slowing down, the only way to please the stockholders is to raise the transmission fees. Nexstar is only serving the interests of the stockholders and not the public.
ABC in Jackson Michigan. Will we ever get it back and will we stopped being charged for something we don’t have
DirecTV continues to follow the AT&T business model of reducing services, or leaving them as-is while having rates.
The rate increase is coming. Believe it!
Directv Customers have a contract with Directv. Directv should have taken the extension. At least we would have seen some of the games. Does Directv think we’re less upset because we haven’t seen any games? Really? I’m sick of Nextstar and really sick of Directv, who my contract is with. We pay for our programming in advance. Directv is not trying to save customers money—they ‘re trying to make more profit for themselves. I’m already looking for something else so I can dump Directv. Sick of all this nonsense