More than 10 million DirecTV customers are without Nexstar stations as of Sunday evening after the two companies failed to come to terms on a new deal.
DirecTV removed Nexstar’s 159 TV stations from its satellite, cable and streaming systems as a result, which includes major broadcast networks CBS, Fox, ABC, NBC and The CW as well as NewsNation, the cable news channel. Subscribers in 113 markets, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Denver, are all affected.
“Nexstar remains hopeful that a resolution can be reached quickly to return to viewers their favorite network programming, live sporting events, in-depth local news, and other local content relevant to their communities, as well as critical emergency updates for which DirecTV is charging its subscribers,” Nexstar said in a statement.
“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,” Rob Thun, DirecTV chief content officer, said in a statement to TheWrap. “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 that Nexstar demanded that they pay “more than double the previous fees for the same content” and noted that the company forced DirecTV to carry “The CW and less popular channels.”
Nexstar said DirecTV rejected the company’s offer to extend the current distribution agreement to Oct. 31.
“Nexstar has been negotiating tirelessly and in good faith in an attempt to reach a mutually agreeable multi-year contract with DirecTV since May, offering the same fair market rates it offered to other distribution partners with whom it completed successful negotiations in the past year,” Nexstar said. “Nexstar routinely reaches amicable retransmission and carriage agreements with its cable, satellite, and telco partners—in the last three years alone, the company has successfully completed agreements with more than 500 distribution partners.”
The company also added that the blackout will affect the Women’s World Cup and Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game.
