The Africa Channel has gained additional linear distribution across all Cox Communications systems as part of a recent carriage agreement between the two companies.

The deal gives the service — which offers pan-African content to U.S. audiences — access to Cox’s Contour TV subscribers in Las Vegas, New Orleans, Phoenix, San Diego, Cleveland and Norfolk/Hampton Roads, Virginia, said the network.

The Cox agreement follows recent carriage deals with Charter Communications and Comcast that put The Africa Channel in front of 11 million subscribers, the network said. 

Also: BNC Inks Carriage Deal with Cox Communications 

”This is a particularly exciting time for us at The Africa Channel which, despite prevailing trends in the industry where audiences appear to be cutting the cord in favor of OTT and digital streaming options, has seen impressive growth in interest, viewership, and distribution in our traditional broadcast offering,“ The Africa Channel executive VP and general manager Narendra Reddy said in a statement. “We attribute this success to our belief, now supported by a growing number of studies which show that diverse, multicultural and niche audiences who mainstream media have often ignored will gravitate towards platforms, traditional or otherwise, when the content is customized to their unique viewing needs. ■

AMC Networks has filed a program carriage complaint against AT&T, charging that the phone company is favoring the networks it owns, such as HBO Max and TNT, over AMC’s channels, such as AMC Network and AMC Plus.

“We have had a long and successful relationship with AT&T and we hope to continue our strong partnership well into the future. We are only asking AT&T to treat our networks fairly and not competitively disadvantage our programming and business interests as compared to the manner in which they treat their own networks like HBO and TNT,” AMC said in a statement.

In its complaint filed with the Federal Communications Commission, AMC said that AT&T was seeking to cut back on how much it pays to carry AMC networks -- while paying its own services more -- and that AT&T wants AMC to keep its content on cable rather than distribute it online and over the top. Details of those charges were redacted in the publicly available version of the suit.

In its complaint, AMC noted that when AT&T was trying to get its acquisition of Time Warner approved, it promised not to discriminate against networks that its networks compete with.

“Now, however, AT&T is attempting to do exactly that. It is attempting to cause severe harm to the smaller independent network AMC, which offers a fresh, independent and diverse voice on MVPDs’ channel lineups that is highly valued by subscribers, for the benefit of AT&T’s competing and similarly situated network TNT and HBO,” the suit alleges.

The suit notes AT&T statements justifying price increases for DirecTV because it is paying more for programming. It also notes that AT&T isn’t seeking to constrain the networks it owns from being online. “To the contrary, HBO and TNT are already carried on a wide variety of online platforms,” the suit said.

AMC is seeking to have AT&T carry AMC and AMC Plus on fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory rates, and to have the FCC impose the maximum fine on AT&T for violating the commission’s rules.

AT&T said AMC's complaint is without merit.

"We treat all programmers fairly and will continue to work with AMC Networks to provide its content at a price that is reasonable to our customers. But, the cost to provide that programming should reflect that AMC Networks’ shows have been declining in popularity as compared to their peers for several years," a spokesperson said. "AMC’s plea to the FCC doesn’t acknowledge our TV services collectively represent only 15% of U.S. television households, and in nearly every market across the country, consumers have two or more competing options that carry AMC Network’s portfolio of channels.“

Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios and Comcast on Thursday reached a content carriage agreement, ending a long, legal dispute that ended up at the Supreme Court.

According to the deal, Comcast extends its carriage agreement for The Weather Channel and 14 broadcast television stations owned by Allen, who is Entertainment Studios/Allen Media Group founder, Chairman and CEO and a 2019 B&C Hall of Fame inductee.

In addition, the deal also includes carriage of ES’ channels Comedy.Tv, Recipe.TV and JusticeCentral.TV on its X1 and video on demand platforms, according to both parties.

“We’re excited to begin a new phase of partnership with Comcast and Xfinity, including the distribution of our cable channels for the first time on Xfinity platforms,” said Allen in a statement.

Comcast Cable senior vice president of video and entertainment Bec Heap added: “We are pleased to have reached this multifaceted agreement that continues our long relationship with The Weather Channel while bringing Xfinity customers additional content. We look forward to an ongoing partnership.”

The deal effectively ends a five-year legal dispute between Allen and Comcast. Allen and the National Association of African American Owned Media sued Comcast in 2015, alleging that the media company conspired to keep African-American owned networks off its systems. A federal court dismissed the suit three times, but the decision was reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit a year ago.

Comcast appealed to the Supreme Court, which this past March ruled against the lower court ruling, saying that Allen "bears the burden" of showing that race was the "but for" cause of the alleged injury--in this case lack of carriage.

RELATED: Supreme Court Rules Against Byron Allen's Entertainment Studios in Comcast Suit 

Allen still has active a $10 billion lawsuit against Charter filed in 2016 also claiming carriage discrimination.

AT&T has struck a multi-year deal with Fox to continue to deliver its TV stations via DirecTV after the sunset of the blanket license. 

AT&T said it has been negotiating with all the networks to continue to deliver signals to truckers, RVs and others after Congress passed a bill, the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization (STELAR) Act, that ended the blanket license June 1, requiring AT&T to negotiate individual deals if it wanted to continue to import distant network TV signals to markets and subs who lacked a local version. 

Related: AT&T Faces Renewed Pressure to Sell DirecTV

Fox is the first deal to get done.

“It is critical for our customers to be able to access network TV programming, especially during this global pandemic,” said AT&T EVP Federal Relations Tim McKone. “With this agreement, essential workers, like those on oil rigs and long-haul truckers, can stay connected with news and information. We appreciate FOX for putting the interests of consumers first and we hope the other networks follow suit.” 

AT&T has been asking for an extension of that deadline until Jan. 1, 2021, rather than having to cut off the signals during the pandemic.  

AT&T could also have preserved the blanket license by agreeing to deliver local signals to a dozen small markets. 

Unlike cable operators, satellite operators have no must-carry requirement, though if they carry any local stations they must carry them all. AT&T has chosen not to deliver stations in a dozen of the smallest markets via DirecTV, instead importing distant network signals and offering an over-the-air option for local stations alongside its satellite service. 

Late last year, STELAR, which allowed satellite operators to import distant network TV station signals to viewers who lacked them, including truckers, RV users and tailgaters on the go, short markets lacking one or more affiliate, and viewers whose market had an affiliate but who could not get a viewable signal. It got those signals at a blanket license rate, and did not have to negotiate with TV stations for them, which it now must do, and has been trying to do.

Related: Deal Struck on STELAR Successor Bills

The legislation extended the compulsory license for truckers, RV users and tailgaters and those in short markets, until May 31, 2020.

Broadcasters, when they were pushing for a STELAR sunset, did express their their willingness to provide a glide path for the sunset. But they also said that AT&T could solve the issue and get a permanent blanket license by serving the last dozen or so markets with local signals as Dish does.

ViacomCBS has struck its first major carriage deal since completing its merger in December, a sweeping agreement with Comcast that spans retransmission consent of its owned and operated stations, carriage of a handful of cable networks and a pledge to integrate the CBS All Access streaming app on the cable operator’s X1 set-tops.

The deal, terms of which were not disclosed, includes retrans for 23 CBS O&O’s and carriage of cable networks Showtime, CBS Sports Network, Smithsonian Channel and Pop TV. In addition, Comcast said the CBS All Access app will be available on its X1 and Flex platforms later this year, and it will provide authenticated streaming of the CBS broadcast network and CBS Sports Network for the first time.

“We are very pleased to have reached this agreement to continue to bring CBS’ industry-leading entertainment, sports and news content from the CBS Television Network, Showtime, Smithsonian Channel, Pop TV and CBS Sports Network to millions of Xfinity customers, and delighted to offer these customers access via X1 and Flex to CBS All Access for the first time,” ViacomCBS president, U.S. Networks Distribution Ray Hopkins said in a press release.  “We look forward to discussing the entire ViacomCBS portfolio with Comcast in the future.”

CBS-owned stations in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis, Miami, Denver, Sacramento, Pittsburgh and Baltimore, as well as CBS-owned The CW affiliates in Philadelphia, San Francisco, Atlanta, Tampa, Seattle, Detroit, Sacramento, Pittsburgh and Baltimore, will continue to be distributed to Xfinity customers.

In addition, two MyNetwork affiliates will be available in Boston and Miami and the CBS-owned independent station will be available in New York.

“ViacomCBS has been a great partner, and we are very pleased to have reached this agreement to provide Xfinity X1 and Flex customers with more access to their content across multiple platforms,” said Comcast Cable SVP video and entertainment Rebecca Heap in a press release. 

The National Cable Television Cooperative said it has reached a carriage deal with Fox Corp., signing an agreement for a handful of cable networks hours after the official midnight deadline passed.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. But the NCTC members -- numbering more than 700 small cable operators representing about 3 million customers -- managed to eke out an agreement for Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, sports channels FS1 and FS2, Fox Deportes and Fox Soccer Plus.

The NCTC had warned that a deal might not be reached before the deadline, citing Fox’s demand for a rate increase the organization said was more than 10 times the current rate of inflation. But it appears that the parties, facing the midnight witching hour, were able to work out a compromise.

As the New Year approached, sources close to the parties said they had a deal in principal, but that nothing had been officially signed. That kept the programming available until the documents became official. By Wednesday evening, on its www.keepfoxnewsandsports.com website, Fox said it had reached a deal with the NCTC without a disruption of service, adding  “All of the NCTC’s members will continue to carry our portfolio of leading sports, entertainment and news programming for years to come.”

NCTC later confirmed that a deal had been reached. 

NESN, the regional sports network of the Boston Bruins and Red Sox, put out warnings to fans that the Sony PlayStation Vue virtual MVPD has indicated it will drop the network at 5 p.m. ET today (April 19), ahead of the fifth game of the NHL Bruins' playoff series against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Here's one warning on NESN's Twitter feed:

[embed]https://twitter.com/RealJackEdwards/status/1119217463340802048[/embed]

PS Vue also carries NESN's national feed but is mostly of concern to subscribers in the six New England states minus Fairfield County, Conn., which shows Bruins and MLB Red Sox games (schedule). A NESN-sponsored tweet said the network offered a 30-day extension but PS Vue declined. (Update: the tweet was by Jack Edwards, the Bruins play-by-play announcer, and he and NESN said later the offer was for 21 days.) NESN is owned by Fenway Sports Group (Red Sox) and Delaware North (Bruins).

In the midst of a blackout on Altice USA cable systems, Starz announced Friday (Jan. 5) that it signed a new agreement with Verizon’s Fios service.

Financial details of the new Starz-Fios deal were not disclosed. Starz described the pact as a multi-year agreement that extends the Fios TV affiliate agreement.

Starz, owned by Lionsgate, said Verizon will continue to offer the full complement of Starz offerings including premium pay TV channels, on-demand and online services.

“Verizon has done a tremendous job in selling our premium services to FiOS subscribers,” said Jeffrey Hirsch, COO for Starz. ”They are an industry leader in offering the best video content for its FiOS TV customers, and we look forward to working with them to enhance the premium experience for their Starz and Starz Encore subscribers.”

Also on Friday, Starz sent Altice USA a cease and desist letter demanding that the MSO stop making false claims to customers about the two companies' carriage negotiations. Starz has been blacked out on Altice USA systems since New Year’s Day, when their existing agreement expired and negotiations did not result in a new deal.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

Newsmax TV has signed a new carriage agreement with Dish Network, the two companies said Thursday (Nov. 30).

The deal, which puts the conservative-leaning cable news network on the satellite service’s America’s Top 120 tier, brings Newsmax’s national cable and satellite footprint to 50 million U.S. households, according to the network.

Related: Charter, Optimum Agree to Carry Regional News Networks

In addition to Dish, Newsmax TV is available on DirecTV, AT&T U-verse, Verizon FiOS and more than two dozen cable systems around the nation.

“Dish is one of the biggest satellite operators in the nation and we are proud to be carried on their system,” Newsmax Media CEO Christopher Ruddy said in a statement. “We believe Dish subscribers want more cable news choices, and we have demonstrated that Newsmax TV is bringing in new viewers who want more than the conventional news lineup.”

New York – With the ink on its carriage deal with Charter Communications not dry yet, Viacom’s chief data officer and EVP Kern Schireson told an audience at the Multichannel News/B&C TV Data Summit here that the pact, details of which have not been released, could serve as a blueprint for future deals.

Read More: Complete Coverage of the TV Data Summit

In characteristically vague language – programmers and distributors are typically contractually obligated to keep the details of carriage deals under wraps – Schireson told B&C business editor Jon Lafayette during an NYC Television Week keynote that the new deal builds on work Charter and Viacom have been conducting for a while.

“There was an ongoing conversation with Charter about the opportunity for these two businesses to work together and to connect some dots and work more efficiently,” Schireson said. “There are things MVPDs do uniquely well, there are capabilities and assets they have, and there are things on the publisher side in the way they transact and run their businesses that are also unique and valuable. Those things have been held at arm’s length from one another.

“Historically, publishers and MVPDs have gone to the table and treated it as zero-sum game – I give you a dollar more, that’s a dollar less for me; you get more stacking rights, you get a different flexibility around channel positioning and packaging, I make less money,” he continued. “I think what we were able to do, because of the run up to the deal and the history and intent of both of these companies, we were able to do something that when the details emerge, a lot of folks are going to look at as a potential blueprint for how to not make this a zero-sum game, and how to really work in partnership to make the TV ecosystem bigger and better and more efficient and to position ourselves for the future in a way that is going to allow us to compete more effectively with some of the folks outside the TV ecosystem that are going after the same dollars.”

Schireson didn’t provide any details, but given his position and Viacom’s past deals that have had an advanced ad component, it is likely that would be a big part of the most recent transaction.

Read More: Complete Coverage of #NYCTVWK

Viacom and Charter said Oct. 17 they had reached an agreement in principle. The deal is expected to be finalized shortly.

Some reports have said the new deal will involve Charter having to carry fewer channels -- Reuters and the Wall Street Journal said Thursday (Oct. 20) that Charter will carry eight of Viacom’s nearly two dozen channels on its basic tier, with the remainder carried on more expensive packages.

Charter Communications and Viacom said they have reached an agreement in principle, adding that the programmer's networks will remain available to customers as final details are worked out.

Viacom's carriage deal with Charter originally expired on Oct. 15, but the companies had agreed to a short-term extension. That reprieve seems to have been enough for the two to work out the bones of a deal.

"Viacom and Charter have reached an agreement in principle," the companies said in a joint statement Tuesday night. "Spectrum subscribers will continue to have access to Viacom’s networks, without disruption, while we finalize terms.”

Just what those terms will be is anyone's guess, although Viacom had said previously that it offered its networks to Charter at a price lower than what the distributor had been paying. In addition, some analysts have suggested that Charter would take on fewer Viacom channels as part of the deal. Viacom has about two dozen channels, but in February said it would focus mainly on six core networks -- MTV, BET, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr. and Spike (renamed the Paramount Network).

The Walt Disney Co. officially announced its carriage deal with Altice USA in the New York area Thursday, a multi-year pact that will preserve the cable operator’s carriage of top Disney networks while allowing it to participate in the programmer’s upcoming direct-to-consumer initiatives.

As part of the new multi-year agreement, Altice USA’s Optimum unit  will continue to provide its customers access to broadcast station WABC, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, ESPN Deportes, ESPN Goal Line, ESPN Bases Loaded, ESPN3 and Freeform, as well as make available additional multiplatform, digital and expanded on-demand content from Disney. Optimum will add ESPN’s SEC Network in late 2018 and launch ACC Network (in place of another ESPN network) in August 2019. The companies also expect to collaborate on ESPN’s direct-to-consumer product, which is slated to launch in early 2018, and have agreed to leverage Altice USA’s data analytics platform.

“Altice USA is focused on providing the highest quality video and service experience to our customers at a great value, and our successful arrangement with The Walt Disney Company ensures that our Optimum customers will continue to receive the programming they want at a reasonable cost,” Altice USA EVP and chief content officer Michael Schreiber said in a statement. “We are pleased with the value and terms agreed to and we thank our customers for their support while we worked on their behalf to reach a fair agreement.” 

The official news comes days after Altice USA and Disney jointly announced on Oct. 1 that they had a deal in principle, avoiding a blackout of its ABC broadcast station, ESPN, and Freeform to Altice USA’s 2.6 million customers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

“This agreement with Altice demonstrates the tremendous value and importance of ESPN, Disney and ABC content to any distributor,” Disney and ESPN Media Networks EVP Justin Connolly said in a statement. “Together we are committed to delivering the best in sports, news and entertainment programming to Optimum customers, regardless of platform, including new networks from ESPN; ESPN’s upcoming multisport, direct-to-consumer offering; and New York’s most-watched station, WABC.”

According to sources familiar with the deal, Altice USA will drop the lightly watched ESPN Classic. Those sources also added the operator also agreed to affiliate fee increases for ABC’s New York broadcast affiliate WABC – at what some reports estimated was twice the previous rate – and more moderate increases for ESPN and Freeform.

For Disney, it received reasonable fee increases, greater carriage for two regional networks and according to sources, increased the mandatory minimum carriage requirements for its ESPN networks. That, according to some analysts, was a key point of the deal. Disney had previously required ESPN to be available to as many as 90% of a distributor’s video subscribers, but in the past few years allowed those mandatory minimums to fall to about 80%, according to an earlier research report by MoffettNathanson media analyst Michael Nathanson. According to sources familiar with the deal, ESPN got closer to the 90% level with this agreement.

The deal is widely expected to serve as a template for future carriage pacts for Disney. The programmer has said that renewals involving more than half of its subscriber base will come due by 2019.

***

LEARN MORE: NYC TV Week is coming up, starting with the 27th annual Broadcasting & CableHall of Fame on Monday, Oct. 16. For more about #NYCTVWK, click here.

Viacom managed to pull a rabbit out of its hat Thursday (April 21), landing a multi-year renewal with Dish Network that seems to give both sides what they wanted – a reasonable rate increase for the programmer and OTT rights for several Viacom networks for Dish’s Sling TV service. But while Viacom shareholders breathed a sigh of relief over landing the deal – uncertainty over Dish carriage has been a major albatross for the stock for months – the rest of the content industry also should be able to exhale. According to reports and people familiar with the matter, Viacom was able to extract mid-single-digit percentage rate increases from Dish, although the actual structure of the deal isn’t known. And Dish is finally able to carry Viacom’s youth-oriented channels on its millennial-focused Sling TV OTT service, which should help expand that product’s popularity.

The simple fact that Viacom was able to secure a deal at terms that frankly appear to be well above what many industry pundits thought were beyond the realm of possibility at a time when it was most vulnerable, is frankly amazing. Some analysts have said privately they believed that a best case scenario would have been maintaining the old rate. Viacom’s stock has been hammered over the past two years – prior to the Dish deal, it was down nearly 60% since 2014 – as declining ratings and the threat of cord cutting and cord shaving have eroded pay TV’s subscriber base. Viacom management has been taken to task by activist investors who claim they haven’t a clue how to run cable networks and are more concerned with siphoning big paydays from the struggling company. 

After the Dish deal, Viacom shares, which were down about 3.4% this year, crossed into positive territory at $42.56 each. On Friday, the stock was trading in the $44 range.

On the other side, Viacom says its successes have been overlooked – it has secured several carriage deals over the past two years with companies like AT&T, Charter Communications, Frontier Communications, Mediacom Communications and several smaller regional distributors with a total of more than 44 million subscribers.

“In 2017 and beyond, these deals will drive Viacom’s annual affiliate fee growth with our traditional distribution partners at solid mid-single-digit rates,” Viacom said in a statement.

That is key,  because it puts the company at the high end of previous guidance of low-to-mid-single digit affiliate fee growth. And already some analysts are taking notice.

Shortly after the Dish deal was announced, Credit Suisse media analyst Omar Sheikh raised his 12-month price target on Viacom stock to $55 per share from $50, adding in a note to clients that with more visibility on fees, rising ad rates and the cash it could get from a planned sale of an interest in its Paramount movie studio, “we see the potential for a material expansion in Viacom's multiple from current distressed levels.”        

Looking at the bigger picture, many analysts were looking to the outcome of this deal as being either the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning for pay TV networks. For Viacom, losing Dish would have been a major blow in that it would have likely led to much tougher negotiations with other distributors. The implications for other programmers could have been similarly dire – if the one group of channels catering to the most sought after audience segment for advertisers can’t secure big enough rate increases, who can?

Other networks are feeling ratings pressure, too as viewing habits shift and if a major programmer like Viacom were to fall, it could embolden  distributors to take a harder stand and even risk a prolonged or permanent blackout of channels.

Dish wasn’t without vulnerability either. As it moves toward being a “connectivity company” in chairman and CEO Charlie Ergen’s words, it has been bleeding satellite TV subscribers. The risk of losing even more in a  prolonged Viacom blackout may have been too great.

One small cable operator I talked to shortly after the deal was done said there was really no doubt that Dish would sign an agreement.

“Charlie has to have the content,” the operator said, adding that if Dish permanently dropped Viacom, competitors would benefit in both lower future programming costs and having the content Dish didn’t.

But that operator also pointed to the 50-60 small cable companies that have already dropped Viacom channels – including Cable One and Suddenlink Communications.  The operator said when Viacom’s next renewal cycle starts, more smaller ops are likely to follow suit.

Somewhat surprisingly, the operator, who asked not to be named, said that online viewing is giving distributors insight into consumer habits that they hadn’t had access to before.

“We’re beginning to see better what people care about more and what we can do without,” the operator said.

There have been big carriage fights, dating back to Cox Communications’ 2003 scuffle with ESPN  that led to a moderation in annual rate increases. Some have backfired for the operators – Time Warner Cable’s decision to darken CBS stations in several big markets in 2013 led to their largest-ever quarterly subscriber loss and helped send them into a tailspin that made them an acquisition target. 

In a blog posting Friday, MoffettNathanson said the Dish renewal “reflects the fact that distributors don't really want to disrupt their customers' product offering and that content companies don't want to lose distribution.  Again, the dynamic of this particular resolution may be never be known, but today’s agreement throws cold water on the idea that Viacom's channels have lost their value.”

Viacom is by no means out of the water yet – it still has a lot of issues to resolve. But getting the Dish deal done gives the time to address them more fully.

“Viacom continues to face challenges from shifting consumption of children's video content to new platforms; a portfolio of network brands which is arguably too large; and an underperforming studio. None will be easy to fix, but the Dish renewal now gives the management team the space to address these complex problems,” Sheikh wrote.

Dish Network and Viacom continued to negotiate their carriage deal past its 11:59 p.m. Wednesday deadline, and subscribers could still access the networks as both moved towards a deal.

Viacom channels like Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and VH1 were scheduled to go dark to the satellite TV company’s 14 million customers on April 20 after months of extensions.

Earlier Wednesday, Dish chairman and CEO Charlie Ergen expressed some optimism that a deal could be reached.

Mediacom Communications has reached a multi-year carriage agreement with Univision Communications, including retransmission consent for the Spanish language broadcaster’s TV stations and its cable networks UniMás, Galavision and well-known movie director Robert Rodriguez’ El Rey Network.

“During their 20-year legacy, Mediacom has always valued diverse voices in media and respected Univision’s role in providing that voice to our communities,” said Univision chief commercial officer and president of content distribution Tonia O’Connor in a statement. “We are proud to once again expand our partnership with Mediacom to achieve our mutual goal of giving Hispanic America the programming they love. We are also thrilled that Mediacom is launching El Rey Network, which unites culturally diverse generations through powerhouse programming.”

The agreement comes on the heels of Mediacom’s announcement that it will spend $1 billion over the next three years to upgrade its broadband network to speeds of up to 1 Gigabit per second.

This is the second carriage deal Univision has reached in about one week. On March 14 it announced a multi-year deal with Atlantic Broadband.  The content provider is still in negotiations with AT&T’s U-Verse over an expired carriage agreement, although the broadcaster has granted several extensions to keep it programming available to the distributor while it continues talks.  

“Mediacom strives to offer culturally rich and diverse programming to our customers,” said Mediacom executive vice president of programming and human resources Italia Commisso Weinand, in a statement. “We are pleased to announce the continuation of our long-standing partnership with Univision.”

Spanish-language broadcaster Univision said it could go dark to nearly 6 million AT&T U-verse TV customers if it doesn’t reach a carriage agreement by Feb. 28.

In an internal memo to employees, Univision said it has made several attempts to negotiate with AT&T, but that the company has not moved forward to renew its agreement with the broadcaster.

In a statement, AT&T said it is in talks with the programmer.

“We continue in active and private discussions with Univision to continue carrying their programming on U-verse,” AT&T said in a statement.

AT&T has been in the process of moving its U-verse telco video subscribers over to its DirecTV platform, which could be a reason for its reluctance to negotiate a Univision-U-verse deal. DirecTV reached its last carriage deal with Univision in March 2013. According to people familiar with the DirecTV deal, the satellite giant’s agreement with Univision is not imminently up for renewal.

In addition to Univision stations, U-verse customers would lose access to Univision-owned UniMás, Galavisión and Univision Deportes Network.

“Our partnership with AT&T, like all other pay TV providers, is very important for UCI and our viewers,” Univision said in the memo. “First, it provides Hispanic America with the vital access to UCI’s content and resources on a premier platform such as U-verse. Also, the economics of this partnership provide UCI the ability to reinvest in technology, content and new community initiatives and campaigns that have been, and continue to be, a lifeline for our consumers.”

Washington bureau chief John Eggerton contributed to this report.

Viacom president and CEO Philippe Dauman said the cable giant has received a short extension onl its carriage agreement with Dish Network and is hopeful a longer term deal can be reached.

Viacom's carriage deal with Dish's 14 million subscribers was scheduled to expire at the end of the month. Investors were concerned that, given Viacom's ratings pressures, there was a strong chance Dish would consider not carrying the channels.

Dauman announced the extension on Viacom's fiscal first-quarter conference call with analysts, adding he expected a deal can be reached that will be "productive for both sides."

While it awaits final regulatory approval on its $48.5 billion merger with DirecTV, AT&T has reached a carriage agreement with broadcaster CBS, a deal that some had expected would have waited until after the larger deal was completed.

In a brief statement, CBS said that a deal had been reached.

“AT&T and CBS have reached an agreement to continue our long-standing relationship, which includes carrying the CBS Owned TV Stations, Showtime Channels, CBS Sports Network, Smithsonian, and Pop (launching in 2016) on AT&T U-verse,” CBS said in a statement. “Ultimately, we both want to provide our customers with the shows they want, when and how they care to watch.”

AT&T's confirmation was even more brief.

“AT&T and CBS have reached an agreement to continue our long-standing relationship,” AT&T said.

The deal comes just as AT&T is expected to receive the nod on its $48.5 billion merger with DirecTV. On June 30, the parties said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that they were extending the termination date for the merger, but that they expected the deal to be “consummated shortly.”  

Some analysts had expected AT&T to hold off on signing a deal until after the DirecTV merger closes, because it would give them greater negotiating leverage. (DirecTV still has several years left on its existing CBS pact.)

The National Cable Television Cooperative has reached a renewal deal with its first-ever programming affiliate, The Weather Co.

The deal, financial terms of which were not disclosed, provides for linear carriage of The Weather Channel and Weatherscan services. The pact also affords NCTC member companies, who opt into the master agreement, with TV Everywhere rights. The distributors' authenticated video customers can gain access to the programmer's content across myriad devices.  

“NCTC is pleased to continue our long relationship with The Weather Channel that gives our members access to the forecasts, severe weather coverage and weather programming their customers enjoy and have come to rely upon in their daily lives." said Judy Meyka, NCTC’s executive vice president of programming.

“The Weather Channel was the first deal NCTC ever struck, which resulted in a more than 30-year partnership that has been beneficial for all,” said Jennifer Dangar, chief strategy officer and president of distribution for The Weather Co.. “Renewing our agreement with NCTC and its nearly 900 members will enable us to continue to provide vital weather information, important alerts and live breaking coverage of severe weather to millions of viewers across the country.”

The Weather Channel, which said it recently signed renewals with Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable, enjoyed strong ratings during February, as much of the nation has been blanketed with snow, ice and cold weather. 

Discovery Communications has inked a multiyear renewal of its distribution agreement with Cablevision Systems Corp.

The new, multiplatform deal allows Cablevision subscribers to enjoy continued access to Discovery’s portfolio of 13 U.S. networks, while providing TV Everywhere rights to the MSO's subs through authentication.

The agreement, financial terms of which were not disclosed, with the New York metro area's predominant provider encompasses Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Investigation Discovery, Science, OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network, American Heroes Channel, Velocity, Destination America, Discovery Family Channel, Discovery Life Channel, Discovery en Español and Discovery Familia, ensures Cablevision subscribers will have access to their favorite Discovery networks and shows for many years to come.

“Investing in world-class content that satisfies viewers’ curiosity has always been Discovery’s top priority,” said Disocvery Communications president of domestic distribution Eric Phillips. “This renewed agreement speaks to the value of that investment, as well as the track record of success and continued strength of Discovery’s brands. We look forward to continuing our strong partnership with Cablevision and to bringing their subscribers the high-quality, original content they’ve come to expect from our portfolio of networks.”

The pact continues Discovery's recent push toward broadening its reach via TV Everywhere.  Since it inked a comprehensive pact with Time Warner Cable in November 2013, all of Discovery's affiliate agreements have incorporated TVE rights. The programmer, which faces a contract deadline with Comcast this summer, has also scored renewals with Cox Communications, Suddenlink and GCI, through its master agreement with the National Cable Television Cooperative.

With carriage expiration looming later this month, Spanish-language service Estrella TV says it is facing a disconnect with Comcast in three markets.

Liberman Broadcasting-owned Estrella TV said Comcast is forcing it off the air in Houston, Denver and Salt Lake City. Comcast said it is continuing to negotiate with Estrella.

The three stations are on Comcast  via must-carry agreements, which will expire at midnight on Feb. 20. Comcast, which is awating federal approval for its proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable, carries Estrella in 13 other markets and says it is the station owner that is pushing toward the service disruption.

"Comcast already distributes Estrella TV programming broadly as Estrella’s largest distributor and we have been negotiating in good faith for months with Liberman Broadcasting to continue carrying its broadcast signals in these three markets, which represent only 20 percent of our total Estrella distribution,” said the nation’s largest MSO in a statement. “Most importantly, Comcast is not dropping Estrella – it is Estrella that has decided to pull its signal from Comcast customers. In fact, we’ve offered to continue to carry their stations under the existing arrangements, which are the same terms we have with other, comparable networks.”

Representatives for Estrella, which is available to some 33 million households via distribution deals with AT&T U-verse, Mediacom, Charter and Frontier Communications, as well as station affilation contracts, indicate the network is seeking license fee compensation. They say fees are warranted given its ratings performance in Salt Lake City, where they claim Estrella TV has been a top Nielsen performer among Hispanics 25 to 54 in primetime and has ranked second with that group in Denver.

“This has been a real-life David versus Goliath battle, with our minority-owned company fighting one of the largest companies in America, and armed with a simple message: let the people watch what they want to watch,” said Estrella TV founder and chairman José Liberman. “With Estrella TV now surpassing Telemundo in the Los Angeles market and elsewhere, it is troubling to see Comcast act irresponsibly by putting its own self-serving business interests ahead of a small minority-owned company, and ahead of Comcast’s Hispanic customers.”

To get its message out, Estrella TV, tapping sister radio stations in the three markets in question, has launched a campaign to educate its supporters about the loss of programming choice for Spanish-speaking viewers and the "real" reasons behind Comcast’s decision to force Estrella TV off its systems. The campaign is also utilizing social media to reach Hispanic audiences, encouraging them to contact Comcast to demand that Estrella TV remain on its cable lineup in Houston, Denver, and Salt Lake City.

Estrella TV said a number of Latino celebrities -- Don Cheto, Noel Torres, Tucanes de Tijuana, Arrolladora Banda El Limon, Luis Coronel, Enrique Gratas, Myrka Dellanos, Julion Alvarez, Banda los Recoditos, and Kevin Ortiz -- have joined the initiative, “No Pierdas Estrella TV,” to keep the network on the air.

Comcast countered by saying its customers shouldn’t have to “pay millions of dollars for Estrella’s broadcast programming that has very limited appeal.  Contrary to Estrella’s assertions, these stations are not widely viewed among Latino audiences. We have reached thousands of agreements with broadcasters and programmers without ever experiencing an interruption of service and are proud to be the nation’s largest cable provider of Spanish- language network packages, with a distribution platform that delivers more than 60 Hispanic cable networks on the majority of Comcast Cable systems. We hope to reach a fair agreement with Liberman and avoid service interruptions. So long as Liberman reciprocates our ongoing good faith negotiations, our customers should not lose this programming.”

(Updated at 6:40 p.m. (ET))

After nearly a month of darkness, Dish Network LLC and Fox News Network LLC have reached a multiyear agreement that will restore the cable news leader and its flanking service, Fox Business Network, to the No. 2 DBS provider's air.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The networks began returning to Dish's air around 6 p.m. (ET), and full restoration was expected to take place over a couple of hours.

The parties disconnected late on Dec. 20. Fox officials said Dish dropped the signals for the two network at 11:50 p.m., 10 minutes ahead of the expiration of their contract, while Dish maintained that Fox pulled the plug and introduced a third unrelated service into the discussions. Reports have suggested that network was either Fox Sports 1, which launched on Aug. 17, 2013, or FX spinoff, FXX, which bowed a couple of weeks later.

Sources familiar with the negotiations, though, maintain the new deal only pertains to the carriage of FNC and FBN.  The business channel gained incremental distribution through the pact, advancing to packaging more equivalent to FNC's 

For its part, the cable news leader was able to secure a major increase in its monthly license fee, which is among the tops cable in the $1,50 range.

Dish CEO Charlie Ergen in a Christmas Eve video that ran on the Dishstandsforyou.com website said that Fox News had been seeking twice its rate, a hike the executive said was somewhat justified given its industry status. Fox News led the cable news category in total audience and the so-called news demo of adults 25 to 54 by wide margins in 2014. The deliveries marked the13th consecutive year FNC set the pace in the category.

The deal does not open the door for FNC or FBN to become part of Dish's OTT service, Sling TV, according to the sources.

Tim Carry, Fox News and Fox Business executive vice president of distribution, and Warren Schlichting, Dish senior vice president of programming jointly stated: “We thank the viewers of Fox News and Fox Business and Dish customers for their patience throughout this process.”

Carry estimated that the blackout of Fox News had cost Dish about 90,000 subscribers through Jan. 7.

Before the companies issued the announcement on Thursday evening, Ergen in a video message on the company's aforementioned website indicated that the parties had agreed to major terms of a new pact and that they were finalizing contractual details.

"We are pleased to announce that Dish and Fox have agreed to the major terms of a new long term agreement that will restore Fox News and Fox Business to our customers. We are working with Fox on a few contractual details but we are optimistic that these channels will be restored very quickly," Ergen said in the video.

Hear Ergen here.

Now more than a week since their disconnect, there doesn’t appear to be any immediate resolution in sight in the Dish Network-Fox News Channel stalemate.

On Sunday afternoon, officials at Fox News said there weren’t any negotiations between the parties, and that viewers of the services were making their displeasure and intent to switch providers known via phone and social media. 

Dish declined to comment on the situation on Sunday.

The cable news category leader and flanking service Fox Business Network have been dark on the No. 2 DBS provider’s air since late on Dec. 20.

Fox officials say Dish dropped the signals for the two networks at 11:50 p.m. that night, 10 minutes ahead of the expiration of their contract. Dish maintains that it is Fox that pulled the plug and introduced a third unrelated service into the discussions. Tim Carry, executive vice president of distribution for FNC and FBN, said Dish’s characterization of that scenario to its subscribers on its website is untrue.

On Christmas Eve, Dish chairman Charlie Ergen via a video on Dishstandsforyou.com apologized to the company’s customers for the interruption of the service and noted the parties longstanding relationship.

In the video, Ergen said the parties were nearing a deal, even though Fox News was looking for an increase doubling its rate – a hike he said was somewhat justified given its leadership status in the space.

The talks, though, broke down when Fox introduced a third network into the conversation, for which it was eyeing a “surcharge” that would have trebled the cost for a service that was not scheduled to expire “for some time.” Ergen didn’t identify the service.

He continued by saying: “The result of this tactic is Fox News became hostage to an unrelated channel, where the price increase was not justified by our existing contract, or its viewership. Ironically, Fox News would be first to decry this type of deal making.Imagine if your federal taxes were suddenly increased dramatically, or you were taxed in a state you did not live in. There was nothing about this extortion attempt that was fair – or balanced. Rather, it was greedy, arrogant, and disrespectful to you, their loyal viewer.”

On the day after Christmas, Fox News issued the following retort on its Facebook page:

"Dish customers: Since Dish dropped Fox News, Dish has focused on shifting blame instead of getting Fox News back on the air. But the facts speak for themselves - Dish has blocked more than 10 channels in the last six months alone. We continue to work on resolving this situation, but until Dish is responsive, we are unable to update you on when Fox News will be available. Go to www.KeepFoxNews.com to get the latest and to find alternate providers in your area where you can get Fox News."

On Sunday, Fox News cited a number of digital metrics, where viewers have voiced their support for the networks and are looking to change providers to regain their channels.

Calls to the 800 line since word of the possible disconnect was disseminated have totaled 186,323, with 62,082 coming since the drop. A total of 121,719 calls were transferred to Dish through Sunday morning, 34,857 since the drop.

The number of emails to Dish originating from keepfoxnews.com has reached 147,000, 45,000 of which have occurred since the disconnect.

All told, there have been 901,000 unique users, 1.1 million visits and  1.6 million pageviews. Since the blackout there have been 525,000 unique users, 626,000 total visits and 939,000 pageviews.

While its channels remain dark to customers of small market cable operators Suddenlink Communications and Cable One, Viacom said Wednesday it has renewed its carriage deal with Frontier Communications.

According to its financial statements, publicly traded Frontier has about 396,000 video customers in 28 states, some of which are satellite TV customers through reseller agreements with the telephone company. However sources said the vast majority of Frontier's video customers would fall under the new Viacom agreement.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Viacom said it is a long-term agreement that entails multiplatform rights for 27 networks, including premium movie channel EPIX.

Viacom networks went dark to about 500,000 Cable One customers on April 1 and on Oct. 1 Suddenlink Communications, which has about 1.1 million video customers in the Midwest, South and Southwest, said it could not reach an agreement for the networks. Last week Suddenlink said video subscriber losses associated with the Viacom dispute have been minimal.