A new carriage dispute has erupted between Nexstar Media Group, Inc NXST and AT&T Inc T, and TPG Inc-owned DirecTV, leading to over 150 local TV stations going dark on one of the largest pay-TV providers in the country, Deadline reports.
Dispute Details
The companies could not agree on a new contract, leaving subscribers without access to local stations including CW affiliates in New York City (WPIX) and Los Angeles (KTLA). The disruption affects DirecTV, Uverse, and DirecTV Stream subscribers, impacting about 10 million customers.
Nexstar’s Position
Nexstar, the largest U.S. owner of local TV stations, stated that DirecTV rejected their offer to extend the current distribution agreement to October 31. Nexstar claims to have been negotiating in good faith since May, offering the same fair market rates it offered to other distribution partners.
DirecTV’s Response
After the contract ended, DirecTV responded to the blackout, with Rob Thun, chief content officer of DirecTV, stating that Nexstar has a history of forcing programming outages to raise prices. Thun added that DirecTV will continue to work with Nexstar to reach an agreement and protect customers from unwarranted price increases.
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