Update: This article has been updated to reflect that Tegna-owned stations are no longer available to DirecTV and AT&T U-Verse customers as of 6 p.m. Central on Tuesday. Nexstar-owned stations also went dark for Dish subscribers Wednesday evening.
Dozens of Texas TV stations owned by Nexstar and Tegna could be inaccessible for satellite TV customers if the owners can’t reach an agreement with TV providers over what the companies want to charge to carry the broadcast channels.
And those deadlines are zooming past expiration, prompting both parties to bring negotiations into the public sphere.
In Dallas-Fort Worth, Tegna-owned WFAA-TV (Channel 8) in Dallas went dark shortly after 6 p.m. Tuesday for DirecTV and AT&T U-Verse customers.
“Unfortunately, DIRECTV and AT&T U-Verse have not come to an agreement with Tegna to keep our stations available on their services. Our company has successfully negotiated multi-year deals with hundreds of cable and satellite providers across the country without disruptions to service,” Tegna spokesperson Anne Bentley said in a statement, noting that the company’s channels are available on other service providers and streaming services.
AT&T also released a statement Tuesday evening after the blackout:
“In the midst of an ongoing pandemic, Tegna is demanding the largest rate increase we have ever seen and intentionally blacking out its most loyal viewers. We challenge Tegna to return its local stations immediately while we finalize a new agreement and pledge to pay Tegna retroactively whatever higher rates to which we eventually agree. We share our customers’ frustration, appreciate their patience and intend to do all we can to resolve this matter soon.”
In previous disputes over so-called carriage fees, some providers have carried through with threats while others continued to talk past the deadline.
At stake is more than 36 hours of WFAA’s weekly, locally produced news content that is now inaccessible to AT&T customers during an ongoing public health crisis as well as regular ABC network programming. AT&T and Tegna had agreed to a temporary extension to allow negotiations to continue. The original deadline was Monday.
Tegna owns at least 12 stations in Texas — including WFAA in Dallas, KHOU in Houston and KENS in San Antonio — serving about 87% of the state.
Irving-based Nexstar is also in negotiations with Dish Network over what it wants the satellite company to pay for its local stations.
Nexstar owns, operates, programs or provides sales and other services to 197 television stations reaching 39% of U.S. households. The company has about 30 stations across Texas, including affiliates in Austin, Amarillo, Tyler, Waco and El Paso. In Dallas-Fort Worth it has CW33, which has shared a notice about the negotiations on its website.
Nexstar stations went dark for Dish subscribers Wednesday evening when the two companies failed to reach an agreement, according to a release from Dish.
“We made a fair offer to keep Nexstar stations available to our customers, but Nexstar rejected it,” Dish TV group president Brian Neylon said in a statement Wednesday.
The sheer breadth of stations owned by Nexstar would make a potential blackout the largest in history, according to DISH.
Dish also has a significant customer base. The company closed the third quarter with 11.42 million pay-TV subscribers, 8.96 million of which were Dish TV subscribers. Dish has said the blackouts affect 5.4 million subscribers.
Nexstar is demanding more than $1 billion in fees for its television channels, according to a previous statement from Dish.
“This shocking increase is the highest we’ve ever seen. Nexstar is intentionally turning its back on its public interest obligation and instead demanding consumers pay significantly more for the channels they could receive for free over the air,” he said.
Dish alleged that Nexstar is holding local viewers hostage to create negotiation leverage.
In a statement, Nexstar said it is negotiating “tirelessly and in good faith in an attempt to reach a mutually agreeable multi-year contract with Dish, offering Dish the same fair market rates it offered to other large distribution partners with whom it completed successful negotiations in 2019 and 2020.”
The two companies have been trying to come to a deal since July and Dish has turned down several proposals, according to Nexstar.
TV consumers losing programming during these routine negotiations has become a new normal as the industry adapts to an evolving media environment. Business models are changing for TV providers, and station owners like Nexstar have moved to consolidate assets.
Nexstar bought Tribune Media Co. and its stations in a deal valued at $4.1 billion in 2019, expanding its reach even further. Nexstar recently struck a deal with YouTube TV to carry WGN America and its nightly newscast NewsNation, making it available to another 3 million subscribers.
