Comcast and Imagicomm reached a retransmission consent agreement Tuesday, ending a month-long blackout.

The deal restores WHBQ Memphis, and KAYU Spokane, to Xfinity cable subscribers.

“We’re pleased to be able to return KAYU and WHBQ to our customers through a new agreement with their owner, Imagicomm Communications, which reflects today’s evolving media marketplace and stabilizes the cost of programming for our customers,” a Comcast spokesperson said. 

Imagicomm, an affiliate of cable network INSP, acquired the stations from Cox Media Group last year.

“We are pleased that we were able to reach an agreement with Comcast / Xfinity that will enable our loyal viewers to resume watching compelling Fox programming and award winning local news on their Xfinity systems in the Memphis and Spokane markets,” an Imagicomm spokesperson said.

Nexstar Media Group and DirecTV said they are close to an agreement and are temporarily ending the nearly three-month blackout of Nexstar’s stations and networks in time for Sunday’s National Football League games.

“In recognition and appreciation of the continued patience of DirecTV customers and Nexstar viewers, the companies have agreed to temporarily return the signals of the Nexstar-owned stations and national cable news network NewsNation to DirecTV , DirecTV Stream and U-verse while we both work to complete the terms of an agreement," the companies said in a statement early Sunday morning.

With more than 200 stations affected by the blackout, the companies are prioritizing returning the signals of the stations showing NFL games on Sunday afternoon (Fox and CBS affiliates) and Sunday night (NBC affiliates).

No details about the financial terms of a financial settlement were disclosed and the companies are expected to make a formal announcement when all the details are ironed out.

Since the start of the Nexstar-DirecTV blackout. Disney’s networks, including ESPN, and stations, were blacked out to Charter Communications pay-TV subscribers. The dispute led to a settlement that resulted in more revenue for Disney and more flexibility for Charter to not offer certain Disney networks and to be able to resell Disney streaming services Disney Plus and ESPN Plus.

Currently, 37 stations owned by Hearst Television are blacked out on Dish Network.

DirecTV sued Nexstar Media Group, Mission Broadcasting and White Knight Broadcasting in a New York federal court Tuesday, accusing the three broadcast station groups of “engaging in an illegal conspiracy” to manipulate the market for broadcast retransmission fees. 

Since October, a total of 25 Mission and White Knight stations in 23 markets have been blacked out on DirecTV pay TV platforms. Both White Knight and Mission have agreements under which Nexstar manages ad sales, news production, equipment maintenance and other functions for stations.

DirecTV's suit accuses Nexstar, America’s largest broadcast station group, of making “sidecar” arrangements with smaller broadcasters to “skirt FCC station-ownership caps and other federal laws through collusive retransmission-consent negotiations.”

In all of the markets where Mission and White Knight have stations blacked out on DirecTV, Nexstar manages another major broadcast network affiliate. (DirecTV's press release has a large, unwieldy chart that shows what these stations and markets are.)

DirecTV's statement: “Mission and White Knight are now unlawfully coordinating with Nexstar to raise prices and extract supra-competitive retransmission consent fees from DirecTV in ‘overlap’ DMAs — those markets where both Nexstar and either Mission or White Knight each own a Big Four station. To accomplish this unlawful and anticompetitive aim, Mission and White Knight have entered into an agreement in which they have effectively relinquished decision-making authority to Nexstar.”

Nexstar's statement: “Nexstar’s shared-services agreements with White Knight and Mission Broadcasting are in full compliance with FCC rules, and each station group independently negotiates its own retransmission consent agreements with its cable, satellite, and telco partners. This lawsuit is without merit and Nexstar looks forward to prevailing in court. ” 

You can see a copy of the suit here. 

We were encouraged to wade through the actual complaint further, and it is full of well-articulated legal haymakers:

To accomplish their "unlawful and anticompetitive aim, DirecTV's lawyers say, "Mission and White Knight have entered into an agreement in which they have effectively relinquished decision-making authority to Nexstar, which has served as the ringleader of a conspiracy to harm competition and violate the antitrust laws."

DirecTV says further that Nexstar strategically restricts management for Mission and White Knight to engage the satellite TV company directly in negotiations, with overtures repeatedly rejected or ignored. 

DirecTV further accuses Nexstar of masquerading the consultant who is handling the negotiations for Mission and White Knight, Eric Sahl, as an "independent" third party.■

Recent disputes between broadcast-television networks and affiliate station owners over virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs) have created enough noise to get the attention of Wall Street.

In a research note Friday, MoffettNathanson analysts Robert Fishman and Michael Nathanson weighed in on CBS affiliates no longer being available on FuboTV and Sinclair Broadcast Group’s ABC affiliates getting blacked out on Hulu.

“It is still possible TV station affiliates reach new deals with vMVPDs after any short or even prolonged blackout,“ the analysts said. “But for the moment, it seems that without any change to government regulation over MVPDs, there will be more storms ahead surrounding future negotiations.”

The longstanding relationship between networks and affiliates has been mostly peaceful and mutually beneficial, Fishman and Nathanson noted. “However during periods of negotiation, we are usually not surprised to see more noise around which party has the leverage and how that impacts the terms of new reverse compensation deals.”

Also Read: CBS-FuboTV Flap Adds to Strains With Affiliates, Analyst Says

It’s worth pointing out that until the 1990s, networks paid their affiliates to carry their programming (and national commercials). These days, the stations pay the networks programming fees that mostly help cover the cost of sports — particularly NFL games.

Streaming in general, and the rise of vMVPDs, have complicated the relationship.

On recent earnings calls, station owners have said that vMVPD deals account for only a small fraction of the retrans revenue that makes them attractive to investors.

“Even though it is true that these TV affiliate negotiations are unique to vMVPD deals today, we expect vMVPD subscribers to continue to take share of the declining pay-TV landscape, making this a bigger deal going forward,” they said.

“One interesting angle that we hope to learn more about is how beneficial these new deals are for the big broadcast networks and media parent company owners overall,“ Fishman and Nathanson said. “If national network feeds have the ability to fulfill the NFL local game requirements, it would seem as though the broadcast networks should be able to obtain improved economics from new vMVPD deals.” ■

Looking at the trouble regional sports networks are having getting distributors to pay for local sports and at CBS affiliates pulling their local feeds from vMVPD FuboTV, analyst Rich Greenfield is questioning whether the retransmission gravy train for TV broadcasters has left the station.

Entertainment programming has shifted to streaming from broadcast, noted Greenfield, principal and media and technology analyst at LightShed Partners. “Time spent watching broadcast TV is falling rapidly, yet the annual cost of retrans continues to rise,” he said.

During broadcasters’ earnings calls, analysts asked as many questions about the future flow of retrans revenues as any other subject.

Greenfield quoted Dish Network chairman Charlie Ergen, who said on the satellite-TV provider’s latest earnings call: “The next step in retrans is down, not up. … I said it about regional sports, I’m saying it now. That’s where that’s going. And it’s a shame because the local broadcasters are caught in a vice between the network and the distributors. So we have some empathy for their plight, but we cannot be their bank unless we get a return. And right now, we don’t get a return.”

The FuboTV situation may be a harbinger of battles coming up with other virtual multichannel programming distributors (vMVPDs). With affiliates balking, CBS gave FuboTV a national feed of CBS programming, with CBS News replacing local affiliate news.

“When Nexstar management was asked about their leverage in negotiations with vMVPDs vis-a-vis the national vs. local feed, they stated: “that [news] is what people want us for as is the local content,” Greenfield noted. “We hope Nexstar management does not actually believe that as retrans would be a tiny fraction of what it is today without the power/leverage of NFL games on Sunday.” 

Also: FuboTV Says Loss of CBS Affiliates Has Had Little Effect On Sub Growth

If local viewers do want local news and can’t get it from a CBS affiliate, they can get it from local ABC, NBC or Fox affiliates, Greenfield added.

“The irony of all ironies is hearing TV station group owners now begging for regulatory relief to have vMVPDs included in antiquated retransmission consent rules to remove access to the national feed,” Greenfield said. “While the Cable Act of 1992 is embarrassingly outdated, as we talked about a decade ago, we are not holding our breath for it to be updated anytime in the next several years. If station groups are hoping for regulatory relief, #goodluckstations.”

While cord-cutting is putting pressure on distribution revenue, it is also hurting ad sales, cutting into reach, he adds. 

“Have TV station groups overplayed their hand as the price/value drops with too many direct-to-consumer streaming alternatives?” Greenfield asked. “Feels like management and investor expectations for revenue growth are inflated, with serious headwinds growing.” ■

Nexstar Media Group’s stations are halting live streaming their newscasts and other locally produced lifestyle programming as of January 12.

In a statement, Nexstar said the move was being taken "to fulfill our obligations to our cable, satellite and telecom partners."

Instead, the local programming will be available on stations' websites two hours after they are broadcast live over-the-air.

Nexstar said that its stations WGN-TV, Chicago, KTLA-TV, Los Angeles, and KRON-TV, San Francisco, will continue to stream local news programming live on their station apps WGN Plus, KTLA Plus and KRON Plus.

The move comes as station groups like Nexstar are trying to grow the  retransmission consent fees they collect from distributors as cord-cutting erodes the number of people subscribing to traditional pay-TV services.

Viewers can continue to watch the stations’ newscasts for free over the air, but giving pay-TV subscribers better access to live news might make the stations more valuable to distributors.

Some broadcasters, including NBC, are creating local news channels that are available on streaming platforms. Many stations also distribute their newscasts to streaming platforms including VUit, NewsOn, Stirr, Local Now and Haystack News.

"We also continue to make highlights of our newscasts available through video clips and other coverage after the live broadcast," Nexstar said. "Breaking news and important weather updates will continue to be offered on the stations websites as they occur, and on our mobile apps and social media platforms."

The developments were reported earlier by FTVLive and Cord Cutter News.  ■

Verizon Fios is warning viewers that stations owned by Cox Media Group in Boston and Pittsburgh could be blacked out when their retransmission-consent agreement expires on December 15.

The blackout would also affect the Pittsburgh Cable News Channel.

Fios said the station group has “proposed an unacceptable rate increase” to continue to carry the stations.

CMG’s stations are already blacked out in a dispute with Dish.

“We have been negotiating productively with Verizon for several weeks and remain optimistic we will come to terms on a fair market deal to keep our award-winning local news, investigative journalism, and popular sports and entertainment programming on Fios TV,” CMG said in a statement.

Also: Unions Cite Dish-Cox Retrans Flap to Argue Against Tegna Deal

A blackout would affect about 340,000 Fios customers. Fios subscribers suffered a two-week blackout of Nexstar stations that ended in October.

“For nearly two decades, broadcasters like Cox have forced cable and satellite providers — and their customers — to pay unreasonably high fees to access local stations. Broadcasters often remove their channels from consumers until TV providers agree to pay more — even though the same channels are available for free over the air,” Verizon said in a statement. “It’s time for our leaders at the FCC and in Congress to protect consumers by holding them — and other broadcasters who frequently use this tactic — accountable. We will continue to work hard to put our customers first and come to a fair agreement on their behalf.” ■

Tegna announced that it has reached a new carriage deal with Dish Network, ending a blackout that began October 7.

The dispute over retransmission consent fees and other issues affected 3 million Dish customers in 53 markets.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Dish subscribers have missed the bulk of the NFL season, but will be able to watch the Super Bowl on Tegna's NBC affiliates as a result of the agreement. They will also be able to watch NBC's coverage of the Olympics.

Dish founder Charlie Ergen conceded that the blackout was costing Dish subscribers while discussing third-quarter earnings in November.

Also: Verizon and Tegna Reach Agreement on New Retrans Deal, End Blackout

“We are pleased to announce that we have reached a new agreement with DISH, restoring our valuable and important live local news, live local and national sports and highly popular network content to Dish TV subscribers,” said Lynn Beall, executive VP and chief operating officer, media operations for Tegna. “We appreciate the patience of our viewers while we worked toward reaching an agreement.”

Tegna has been rumored to be considering a deal to sell the company. Tegna stock was up 7% on Friday on a report that it was in advanced talks with Standard General, who mounted a proxy fight with Tegna management last year. A deal with Standard General could be backed by Apollo Global Management, which already owns the Cox Media Group. Byron Allen's Allen Media Group has also reportedly been bidding for Tegna.

Also: Cable Retrans Blackouts Declined Sharply in 2021, But 2022 Could See an Uptick in Disputes

The agreement includes retransmission consent for all 64 Tegna-owned stations.

“We‘re pleased to have reached an agreement in time for the Winter Olympics and Super Bowl that benefits all parties, especially our customers,” said Brian Neylon, group president, Dish TV. “I want to thank our customers for their patience and understanding as we worked through the negotiations.”

Shortly after the blackout began, Dish Network filed a complaint with the FCC charging that Tegna was not negotiating in good faith. Tegna responded calling Dish's charges baseless and filing its own suit charging Dish had been making false claims.

Dish averted a blackout with Sinclair Broadcast Group, making a deal in November. The Sinclair stations stayed available to Dish subscribers on short-term extensions that began when the previous long-term deal expired in August. ■ 

The New Year rang in with a bit of a whimper on the retransmission consent front, with the American Television Alliance estimating that blackouts in 2021 — those periods when stations go dark as deals expire — were about one-third their number in the previous year. But distributors won’t have much time to celebrate, as the traditional deal cycle suggests that 2022 could be another record year for broadcast service disruptions.  

According to the ATVA, a trade group that represents satellite and cable companies, there were about 105 blackouts in 2021, less than one-third the record 336 stations that pulled their signal in the prior year and less than half the 278 stations that were blacked out in 2019. 

The lack of heated disputes as the clock neared 12 on Dec. 31 was in line with what Kagan, a research arm of S&P Global Market Intelligence, had predicted nearly 11 months prior. Back in February, the researcher had estimated that retrans blackouts would be lessened simply because there were fewer deals set to expire. According to Kagan, about 22 retrans deals affecting 30.2 million subscribers were expected to expire in 2021. That compares to 2020, when retrans blackouts affected about 56 million homes. 

Kagan based its predictions on the usual three-year timeline from the last public retrans transaction announcement or from earnings calls and investor presentations. Typically, broadcasters and distributors don’t reveal when a deal is up until it is, citing non-disclosure agreements embedded in retrans contracts. 

With that in mind, 2022 could see a big resurgence in retrans battles, as more deals are expected to enter the expiration queue. 

AT&T, which spun off a minority stake in its DirecTV, AT&T TV and U-verse TV units to TPG in February, struck several big retrans agreements in 2019 that could come up for renewal this year. Included in that mix are Nexstar Media Group, Sinclair Broadcast Group, CBS, Hearst TV and others that involved more than 300 stations alone. While it is no guarantee that all of those stations will go dark for some period this year, it’s a good guess that many will.

Other distributors who reached large retrans deals in 2019 include Comcast (with Nexstar and Tegna), Charter Communications (Nexstar and Tegna), Verizon Communications (Tegna, Nexstar and Cox Media), Suddenlink Communications (Tegna) and Frontier Communications (Nexstar). Dish Network reached a retrans deal with Meredith (now part of Gray Television) and Cox Media Group in July 2019. It is unclear as to whether the Meredith stations will fall under Gray TV’s retrans schedule.    

Also: No Cigar 

While there were fewer actual blackouts in 2021, several disputes that began earlier continued into the New Year. The largest is Tegna’s dispute with Dish Network, involving stations in about 53 markets that went dark on Oct. 6. Both sides have accused the other of negotiating in bad faith, and there was no indication at press time that a resolution was near. 

Verizon Fios TV customers lost access to Tegna stations in about five markets on Jan. 4, after the parties couldn’t renew their retrans agreement, which was originally scheduled to expire on Dec. 31, 2021. 

Also: AT&T and TPG: There is No Why 

Many of the bigger retrans disputes in 2021 took place at the beginning of the year and were resolved in the subsequent weeks and months. Dish Network reached a long-term carriage deal with Sinclair Broadcast Group’s 144 stations in November, but the broadcaster failed to reach an agreement for its regional sports networks. The Sinclair stations never went dark to Dish customers during those negotiations — the original deal was set to expire in August — because of a series of short-term extensions offered by the broadcaster. 

Almost exactly one year ago, Cox Media Group resolved a 20-day retrans blackout of its stations to Suddenlink subscribers, and in February last year Cox Media settled a five-day blackout with AT&T, getting its stations back in front of DirecTV, U-verse TV and AT&T TV customers mere hours before the start of the Super Bowl.

Also: New Year Ushers End to Several Cable Networks 

On the streaming side, YouTubeTV avoided a prolonged blackout of Disney channels by hammering out a deal with the entertainment giant that brought back broadcaster ABC‘s owned stations and cable channels ESPN, FX, Disney Channel, National Geographic and Freeform after a 36-hour hiatus. YouTube had promised its subscribers a $15 one-time credit to their monthly bill if a Disney blackout occurred, a pledge the company said it would still honor.   

The Google-owned streaming service also reached a carriage deal with NBCUniversal in October, avoiding a blackout. 

In the meantime, YouTubeTV and Hulu Live+ TV are still locked in a carriage battle with Sinclair’s Bally Sports Network RSNs, which went dark to those streamers in October 2020. 

Regional sports channel MSG Network hammered out a deal with Verizon’s Fios service on October 6, while its ongoing fight with Comcast, which began earlier in the month, raged on. At press time, MSG was still off Comcast systems.   

Dish dropped RSNs Root Sports Network and AT&T Sports Network in September.  Three months later it dropped its final RSN -- New England Sports Network -- making Dish the only major MVPD without a regional sports network. 

In July, Dish and HBO ended their three-year carriage battle, while earlier that month ViacomCBS struck a carriage deal for its linear and streaming networks with Charter Communications. In June, Charter struck a separate carriage deal with Multicultural News Network while Verizon signed on Black News Channel that same month. 

In January 2021, CMG struck a retrans deal with Suddenlink, while Fios averted a blackout of Hearst TV channels by hammering out a deal at the beginning of last year. 

So it isn't all doom and gloom when distributors and broadcasters make their ways to the negotiating table, and it seems the likelihood of a deal getting done without a  disruption in service is increasing. At the same time, the threat of a blackout is sometimes a broadcaster's only negotiating leverage, and most aren't afraid to use it.   

Broadcasters and distributors have been playing the blackout game for years. And though the decline in pay TV subscribership and the increase of direct-to-consumer offerings that include broadcast fare could eventually eliminate the need for these disputes — or maybe someone will invent an antenna-like device that will allow consumers to capture broadcast signals over the air for free — chances are that’s going to take a few years to fully play out. Until then, consumers, distributors and programmers will just have to deal with their retrans agita. ■

Dish Network and Sinclair Broadcast Group said they reached a new multi-year carriage agreement.

The new deal keeps Sinclair’s 144 local station in 85 markets on the Dish TV satellite service. It also puts Sinclair’s Tennis Channel on Dish and on Dish’s virtual multichannel video programming distributor service, Sling TV. Sinclair’s regional sports networks remain off Dish and Sling.

The previous retransmission agreement between Dish and Sinclair ran out in mid-August, before the start of the NFL season. The stations have been available to Dish subscribers under a series of short-term extensions.

Dish is still in a blackout situation with Tegna, whose stations have been unavailable to Dish subscribers since Oct. 5. The companies have been trading charges ever since. 

"Our agreement with Dish reflects the continued importance that distributors place on local and national broadcast content,” said William Bell, Sinclair's head of distribution & network relations. “We look forward to continuing to provide Dish viewers with the high-quality and highly-desired entertainment, and timely local news that they depend on every day."     

Not included in the deal are Sinclair’s regional sports networks. Dish has been dropping expensive local sports channels, including Sinclair's. Dish has been insisting that customers that want sports have already dropped Dish in favor of distributors that offer more sports options. Some observers thought Sinclair might be able to tie the sports outlets to a retransmission agreement with Dish.

"We are pleased to have reached a multi-year agreement with Sinclair after months of negotiations," said Brian Neylon, group president, Dish TV. "Sinclair has been a good long-term partner to work with. Both sides have been committed to keeping our customers top of mind and not putting them in the middle of our negotiations. After several contract extensions, we have arrived at a fair agreement that benefits all parties, especially our customers."

Dish is losing subscribers because of the retransmission dispute that has blacked out Tegna stations, Dish co-founder and chairman Charlie Ergen said.

Referring to the Tegna stations on Dish’s third-quarter earnings call Thursday, Ergen said, “they’re not up and we are losing some customers, but not as dramatic as it might have been in the past.”

Also: Tegna Responds to Dish and Files Own Suit Charging False Claims

Ergen said that retransmission fees continue to go up as broadcast network viewing erodes.

“We've seen viewership decline 15 years in a row on the networks and retrans go up by 1,000%. That's not sustainable,” he said. “We look at the math and we know we'll lose customers, so we know we'll lose Tegna customers.”

Ergen predicted that if viewing and retransmission fee trends continue it will kill off the networks. “The end result of this is networks -- if you fast forward 10 [years] ... -- I don't know that networks exist, maybe for local news, because they're pricing themselves out of the market.”

Retransmission is mostly a ticket that lets viewers watch their local NFL teams, Ergen said. 

“Once people find a way to get football next year, that's going to be a permanent loss of viewers for Tegna,” Ergen said. “And of course, people also can go get it from the networks. They can get Peacock from NBC directly. And maybe Tegna gets revenue from that, maybe they get more revenue than they do from us, and maybe that makes sense for them.”

Ergen questioned why the networks were looking to drive viewers toward streaming services. And he noted that that is putting station owners in a difficult spot. “I'm somewhat empathetic to their plight because they don't have a real place to go, absent some fundamental changes.”

And at some point, retransmission fees will have to go down, rather than up, he contended.

“I think the moves in retrans are down, not up. And I don't know what that does to valuations, but I saw Gray publicly said 50% of their revenues are retrans. And I think that's going to come under pressure,” he said.

Dish is also in a retransmission dispute with Sinclair, but Sinclair’s stations have remained on Dish via a series of short-term extensions.

“Sinclair is bigger than Tegna  and we've had a long-term relationship there. And that -- there's more conversation around that, than there is, and they're bigger and would probably have a little bit more clout and scale in the marketplace.”

Tegna’s stations were blacked out to Dish Network’s 3 million subscribers Wednesday evening after the two companies were unable to reach a new retransmission deal.

The blackout affects Dish customers in 53 markets.

Also Read: AT&T SportsNet and Root Sports Removed From Dish Network

Dish said Tegna was demanding unreasonable increases in its retransmission fees.

Also Read: Sinclair, Dish Agree to Extension Avoiding Massive Blackout for Now

“We made a fair offer to keep Tegna stations available to our customers, but Tegna rejected it, forcing the removal of its channels,” said Brian Neylon, group president, Dish TV. “Tegna is looking to sell its stations to the highest bidder and is simply trying to exploit Dish customers as a way to get the maximum price and further fatten their wallets.”

Last month, Tegna said it had received offers to buy the company.

“Tegna is demanding we pay for 100% of our subscribers in their markets, regardless of whether these subscribers receive or want Tegna’s programming,” added Neylon. “As one of the nation’s largest local station owners, they are more interested in increasing their bottom line by charging our customers more money than providing programming to viewers under fair terms.”

Tegna blamed Dish for the blackout.

“Dish has refused to reach a fair, market-based agreement with us based on the competitive terms we’ve used to reach deals with numerous other providers that reflect the current market,” Tegna said in a statement. “While Dish is one of our smaller distributors, we regret any inconvenience for any of our customers, and hope that Dish will come back to the table to get a deal done to return our valuable programming to their system.”

Tegna began warning viewers that a blackout was possible on Tuesday. 

Giant station owner Tegna and satellite TV provider Dish Network said they are far apart in negotiations as their current retransmission consent agreement has run out with an extension set to expire at 9 p.m. Wednesday. 

Also Read: Tegna Stations Blacked Out to Dish TV Subscribers

Tegna said Dish is refusing to reach a fair agreement to continue carriage. The broadcaster said it began notifying viewers of an impending blackout Tuesday after giving the satellite TV provider an extension beyond the original date their agreement expired to allow talks to continue. 

Also Read: AT&T SportsNet and Root Sports Removed From Dish Network

“We are committed to reaching a fair, market-based agreement with Dish based on the competitive terms we’ve used to reach deals with numerous other providers that reflect the current market,” Tegna said in a statement. “Thus far, Dish has refused to agree to such terms, which is why we have begun informing Dish customers that they may lose access to their local Tegna station and our valuable programming. We hope that Dish is willing to negotiate a market-based deal before tomorrow night’s deadline, and doesn’t take away their customers’ local news, weather, sports and network programs.”

Dish blamed the growth in the size of retransmission fee payments, which in the case of a large station owner like Tegna could come close to $1 billion. 

“Businesses should have the opportunity to be profitable, but there's a big difference between running a profitable business and taking blatant advantage of consumers,” said Brian Neylon, group president, Dish TV. “Tegna is demanding an unreasonable fee increase — an increase the programmer knows will directly impact its viewers.”

Dish agreement with Tegna could impact subscribers’ access to local ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, The CW and MyNetwork TV stations across 52 U.S. cities.

The FCC has officially imposed the maximum per-violation fine of $512,228 apiece for all but one of the stations it had identified in a September 2020 notice of apparent liability as violating the FCC's requirement of good faith retransmission consent negotiations.

The 18 stations had been the target of a complaint by AT&T and its DirecTV DBS service alleging they had unreasonably delayed those negotiations including failing to respond to AT&T proposals.

“We applaud the FCC’s action today imposing the statutory maximum penalty on broadcast stations who deliberately violated the Commission’s good faith negotiation rules, causing lengthy and unnecessary TV blackouts that harmed the public," said an AT&T spokesperson. "These practices hold U.S. consumers hostage and we are hopeful that today’s ruling sends a strong message to broadcasters to knock off this anti-consumer behavior.”

The FCC back in September 2020 found in favor of AT&T and proposed the fines, totaling more than $10 million. It then denied an appeal by the eight station groups involved — Deerfield Media, GoCom Media, Howard Stirk Holdings, HSH, Mercury Broadcasting, MPS Media, KMTR Television, Second Generation of Iowa and Waitt Broadcasting.

The stations had a chance to respond, and they did, but the FCC was unpersuaded by the stations' argument that the fine was excessive and should be no more than $25,000 per station.

AT&T filed the complaint in June 2019 against the stations and groups, and the FCC said all of them failed to meet its standard for good-faith negotiations. All the groups were represented by consultant Duane Lammers of Max Retrans. AT&T sued Lammers, though that suit was thrown out.

AT&T pointed out in its complaint that all the stations involved were “managed and controlled by Sinclair Broadcast Group through some type of shared services agreement.” AT&T asked the FCC to 1) find that each station had violated the good faith negotiation requirement; 2) compel the stations still not negotiating in good faith to do so; and 3) fine them.

Rather than fine Lammers or the station groups, the FCC said it was appropriate to fine each station, saying "the harm to viewers is multiplied with each station that goes dark, regardless of the number of corporate parents involved in a carriage dispute, underscoring the importance of our focus on individual stations."

Good-faith negotiation complaints are not unusual, but the FCC upholding one and levying a fine was unprecedented. Such complaints have generally been dismissed for failing to show the negotiations were not in good faith, or dropped after the parties involved reach an agreement and publicly bury the hatchet, at least for the time being.

As to the one station not hit with the maximum, the FCC said: "After considering Defendants’ response to the NAL, we find no reason to cancel, withdraw, or reduce the penalty proposed, except with respect to Mercury. In light of its demonstrated inability to pay, we grant Mercury’s request to reduce the proposed forfeiture to $30,000.

But for the rest,"after considering Defendants’ response to the NAL," the commission said, "we find no reason to cancel, withdraw, or reduce the penalty proposed, except with respect to Mercury."

“ATVA applauds the FCC's decision to fine stations associated with Sinclair nearly $9 million for violating the good faith negotiation rules,” said American Television Alliance Jessica Kendust. “The FCC found that these stations and their agent, Duane Lammers, engaged in conduct that merited the maximum penalty allowed by law. We are pleased that the FCC’s action sent such a strong signal that it will not tolerate broadcasters' bad-faith conduct, especially when their behavior leads to needless TV blackouts that are harmful to American consumers." 

Nexstar Media Inc. filed a suit against Comcast Cable Communications charging that the cable company was breaching its retransmission contract by failing to pay fees for carrying WPIX New York.

In the suit, filed in New York State Supreme Court, Nexstar is seeking unspecified damages, interest and other costs, including attorney’s fees.

In 2019, Nexstar acquired Tribune Broadcasting, which owned WPIX, but sold the New York stations and other stations to the E.W. Scripps Co. to fit under the FCC's ownership caps. As part of the sale of stations to Scripps, Nexstar retained an option to buy back WPIX. Nexstar sold that option to Mission Broadcasting in July 2020 for $75 million.

Nexstar has a management agreement with Mission Broadcasting and says in its lawsuit that its contract with Comcast covers additional stations managed by Nexstar. Nexstar said it notified Comcast that WPIX was one of the stations it manages, including negotiating retransmission fees.

“Comcast’s retransmission of WPIX became governed by the terms of the Comcast-Nexstar Agreement, including the specific fees that the parties had negotiated,” Nexstar said in the suit. 

“Rather than live up to its end of the bargain, however, Comcast decided to repudiate the Comcast-Nexstar Agreement. In a series of letters spanning April through July 2021, Comcast stated that it would not comply with its obligations under the Comcast-Nexstar Agreement, and confirmed that it had not been (and would not be) paying the fees required under that agreement for WPIX,” the suit claims.

Last week, Comcast asked the FCC to rule that Nexstar has control over WPIX, putting it in violation of the 39% ownership cap. 

In its petition to the FCC, Comcast argues that the WPIX spinoff was a sham and that Nexstar was trying to boost the fees Comcsat pays for the station. 

“Nexstar has, as a practical matter, pulled a ‘bait-and-switch’ with the Commission and the public through its post-transaction interactions with WPIX,” Comcast told the commission.

“The complaint filed by Nexstar is just an attempt to distract from the important issues that we have brought to the FCC’s attention, including that Nexstar’s control and influence of WPIX violates the national ownership cap and the FCC’s merger conditions on its acquisition of Tribune Media,” Comcast said in a statement Wednesday.

Rich Fickle joined the National Cable Television Cooperative in 2011 amid what was a trying time for the small cable operator buying collective.  After its former CEO left, there was a growing sentiment among smaller operators in the membership that their needs weren’t being met, and that larger players were dominating what had been started in 1984 as a way for small companies to band together, share ideas and buy equipment and programming with a single voice. It took some time, but Fickle and his team managed to turn the NCTC around and refocus the operation toward its original mission. Now after 10 years, Fickle told the NCTC board that he will step down before the end of the year, ending one chapter in his 40-year cable career, and perhaps opening a door to the next. Fickle spoke with senior content producer -- finance Mike Farrell about his legacy and plans for the future. An edited transcript follows. 

MCN: What brought this decision about?

Rich Fickle: It’s the longest job I think I’ve had, ever. I’ve worked for affiliated companies doing different things every three or four years, but I think this has been the same job  for 10 years. I guess maybe part of the answer is I always enjoyed tackling new things and changing the scenery a little bit to keep growing myself. But the other side of it is I think it’s healthy for this organization to also bring in a fresh perspective. As you get a little bit older you want to give a little bit of a different allocation of time for work versus other things. I felt like I was less willing to put in the 60-70 hours a week for certain things than probably should be in this role. So I said, ‘I need more flexibility and time.’ 

I’m still hoping to stay engaged in some way with the industry, but that’s a marketplace kind of opportunity. If it doesn’t happen, I’m OK with that too. 

Is this a retirement for you?

RF: I don't think it will be. It could be? It’s kind of like you’re going through a door and you really have very little idea of what’s on the other side of it. I committed to staying engaged through the end of the year. The reality is I think they’ll find a replacement within a few months. And then I’ll be helpful to that person for some period of time -- maybe a couple of months -- and then just kind of be available for the rest of the year.

It’s sound like this is something you’ve been thinking about for awhile.

RF: There wasn’t any disruptive, conflicting or change-of-life condition. I think it’s just my DNA. I kind of want to not do the same thing in one place forever. I value the learning and challenges of new environments and various things to put effort into. I think I’m happier doing that. Some people are happier knowing what they are going to do every day, and it’s very predictable. I’m just not one of the ones to do that. 

When you joined 10 years ago, NCTC was in a little bit of turmoil and there were questions concerning which direction it would take. But you seemed to bring a sense of stability pretty quickly to the organization. 

RF: I don’t know if I can opine on what I did as opposed to what a lot of others contributed. Let me answer it this way: I would say, yes, 10 years ago there were some distinctive challenges. There was a board that wasn’t as unified as it is today. You had members on the board that contained representations from some very large MSOs and some very small MSOs. And there seemed to be a lack of unity because they have some different views, are from different worlds that are pretty dramatic. You want some of that, but you have to have a balance there. That was one issue. I think the other part of it was there were certain parts of engagements with the other parts of the industry -- CableLabs or SCTE or even the other associations like those that represent the telco or fiber based providers -- that felt alienated in their relationship with the NCTC. I can't go into the story of why that happened, but one of the things we tried to do was change that, because the industry has always been  stronger when people are working together.  

The other notable shift that we tried to incorporate fairly quickly, is that the members [and] organizations had to feel like they were not disenfranchised. Small ops felt like the NCTC may have changed allegiance to focus just on the large companies. We worked hard to try to rectify that. Some of that is just the perception, because there’s a void in communication that creates those impressions sometimes of not being important anymore. But there was some reality to it as well.

The membership was a little bit unsatisfied, or feeling like this is no longer the co-op they remember. There's those things that were almost immediate challenges. Financially, there was probably a different mindset around how to manage the balance sheet. A long time ago I was a CFO and it’s just kind of ingrained in me that if you have an organization, you’ve got to  have to have a bit of staying power for opportunities and rainy days. So we had to do some work-throughs.

The plus is that the co-op was founded on a very solid foundation of a true cooperative spirit with entrepreneurial  independent companies wanting to collaborate and an employee base that had a really clear mission about trying to help small and medium sized operators really be successful. And that mission is very well ingrained and people love getting up in the morning feeling like they contributed something meaningful. Those types of things, the member mission, the spirit of the co-op, the entrepreneurial mindset, was so strong that it helped us make changes relatively quickly because there was that common ground. It’s been a good team that contributed that. We’ve had fantastic board members. We have 14-to-15 of them at any given time, so it’s a large board. But after that first year, we had a board that was much more unified. That creates a whole different dynamic because you can become so distracted by governance that is in conflict that it ripples through everything you do. I feel for the last nine years we’ve had a really, really good, supportive board. 

And we’ve had a lot of fun too. We decided to step up our game on the shows and open it up more; it was very limited attendance. We opened up the checkbook to bring in more talent, more events, because having people being able to enjoy each other's company and collaborate and build relationships is hard to measure but it’s foundational. I think it paid off. We all enjoyed that capability. COVID has kind of iced a lot of that for the more recent events, but we do want to go back to it. 

Let’s talk about the Independent Show. It seemed you were stepping things up when everyone else was stepping back.

RF: If you look at it from the larger cable operator perspective, their support of shows [and] things like that was huge dollars. They had to question themselves, the rationale for that investment, as they consolidated and grew bigger. But the NCTC group of companies hasn’t really changed that much. I think when I first joined there were roughly 700 companies, today we’re just north of that. Given the change of the last 10 years and we’re dealing with roughly 700 companies, that’s pretty amazing. We’ve had consolidation, we just keep adding new companies into the mix. There’s always been this fragmentation problem that we help solve by providing venues to help suppliers and other interested parties to work together.

The other change is the programming world has changed dramatically. The large programmers have consolidated, they have less of a need to attend shows, they’ve cut back on their affiliate staffs, but they still see value in attending, participating and supporting, which is great. The other thing we did is we expanded the scope of our supplier community to include a lot more technology partners. The size of that group of companies and the size of dollars flowing through the NCTC, I’m pretty sure, has doubled. We emphasized more of that in the last few years, and it’s growing at a very fast rate. 

As we shift more and more resources into broadband, we are not abandoning video and programming, in fact we’re growing there, but we made an intentional effort several years ago to be more tech friendly. Because a lot of the solutions that the large guys were getting behind from an R&D perspective were great for them, but it doesn’t work well for smaller markets. 

There's a divergence too. A lot of our companies come from different backgrounds. They  may be telco-centric, they may be municipalities, they may be new entrants coming from a whole different world based on fiber. But all of them have kind of taken a fresher perspective. They are early adopters of next generation network technology like fiber to the home, much more than some of the large guys that have had such huge investments in coax and DOCSIS technology. Fiber growth has fueled a lot of companies entering the business, because fiber is so powerful with broadband. Broadband seems to be a natural companion with video. Broadband is kind of the lead horse, but programming with video content is essential to customer relationships, especially in Tier 2 or Tier 3 markets. They kind of go hand in hand. We expanded and will continue to expand heavily in supporting the broadband side of that.

In the last few years, there has been an effort by the NCTC to help smaller operators that wanted to make the transition to broadband-only or at least broadband-mostly, more smoothly.

RF: You’re right, there are operators that want to transition to fiber. That’s interesting and a problem for a lot of these guys. A lot of the major fibercom providers didn’t know how to talk to cable operators, they were used to dealing with telcos maybe more than cable operators. We merged those worlds, or at least tried to help do that. So today we have five large providers of fiber technology and materials that we have done fairly good sized stocking deals with, because we know that area is exploding. We have a lot of capacity to serve members with that supply chain. We have three com deals with major providers of that technology, maybe have a fourth soon. And then we’ve done a lot on the DOCSIS modem side as well. That’s been there for a long time, but we also shifted more toward IP video support, we launched a key partnership with Plume around managed WiFi for the home, we’re going to do more of those types of things for the home network. We’ve got a circuit program now where we have multiple national carriers that supply circuits to our members. It’s a natural point of help for  members because we can aggregate those opportunities across the entire U.S. for them to have connectivity with different carriers and hopefully better terms. That program kicked off about a year and a half ago and it’s going well too. 

There’s more to come. Who knows what a successor will do, but we’ve got a road map of probably a half a dozen items that if we could do them today, we’d do them. There’s only so much time we have to work on things. But there’s a rich set of additional things we can do to help members, especially on broadband.

You’re also helping members with retransmission consent negotiations.

RF: I’m glad you brought that up, because programming and video is still pretty darn important. And if you look at the numbers we’ve actually been growing every year. How much programming we transact, on the retrans side specifically, we started with retrans deals that were tied to large cable network agreements. I think it was either ESPN or NBC that was the first because they had O&O retrans capabilities, that was probably five years ago. Just over three years ago, we did a handful of station group deals. We jumped into that pool. Then in this last round, we more than doubled that. Now retrans is a significant part of our portfolio of programming deals that we work on. These are tough. It probably is one of the biggest pain points for our membership base because of the cost of retrans and a lot of changes with programming content and station group consolidation. But it’s been very successful over the last two major renewal cycles to increase our presence on the retrans side. I suspect we will continue to do that. And I hope the station groups will see value in that too because we’re able to hopefully make it more sufficient for them to reach a large number of operators across the country.  

Even on the general programming side, last year we did 36 deals, some are renewals some are brand new, we still support entirely new networks. When I first joined the NCTC, we were lucky to get four deals a year done.  And we haven’t changed the size of the team that manages the programming side. [EVP of Programming] Judy Meyka came on a year or so after I came on. She’s done an incredible job of doing a lot of those transactions, she’s very effective, she’s built a good team. It’s really quite rewarding to see how much productivity we have on that side of the business.

One of the criticisms of the NCTC before you got there was that larger members could pick and choose which deals they did on their own and with the co-op, which some members saw as limiting your negotiating leverage. How did you change that dynamic?

RF: The way that structure worked created several problems, where larger members could almost sit at the table and see where the NCTC was going with certain deals and make decisions on whether they would pursue their own deal at the eleventh hour and even before that. That creates this uncertainty, not only for our membership and our negotiations, but think about it from the programmers’ side. The programmers were upset because they felt like ‘I have to negotiate twice with this large company, give them the benefit of seeing things coming through the NCTC and then that allows them to be more informed on their negotiation strategy.’ They felt like it was unfair. I actually agreed with them. 

It’s an imperfect world because you always have to provide choice to any member to do their own thing, and we still do that today. But we now have  structures in place that say, ‘If you want us to negotiate on your behalf, we can be effective if you commit to us today that that’s what you want to do.’ If you don’t want to commit to do that, that ‘s fine. Do your own thing, no hard feelings. But we didn’t have that before. 

So now we’re asking on major deals for members to be able to commit that they’re going to allow the NCTC to go through the negotiations. They’ll be a part of it, they’re not going to disrupt it, they’ll be supportive of it. And that has created a much, much more trusted process for both our side of the table as well as the content providers. And, yeah, there was a little bit of resistance or hesitancy to do that for various reasons, but it’s worked out.  

Do we still have large companies that still want to do their own thing for certain types of agreements? Yeah, but that’s OK. We’ve actually had more of our larger members rejoin some of our larger deals than we have the other direction where they exited on renewals. Our net track record is a positive in terms of large operators being involved in major programming deals.

We have to prove ourselves. We have to deliver value. We’ve never taken the approach that if you’re a member, you have to sign this secret oath that you’re going to do everything through the co-op. We feel like we have to earn it. If members don’t see the value in the short term and the long term of supporting that structure, then they probably shouldn’t be members. There are always situations where it does make sense for operators to consider doing a little something different for themselves. And that’s fine. 

With retrans and regular cable networks, you can go as a united front and say you represent however many millions of subscribers you represent -- at one point it was over 25 million.

RF: That depends on how you do the accounting on some of that, but that was when we had some very large MSOs involved. I always look at the level of participation as opposed to the theoretical level, how many subs are actually participating. I don’t think we ever had that number exactly from that definition. You had that number from the aggregate number of companies that signed a membership agreement. 

Can you say how many you represent now?

RF: I would say in general our larger deals probably hover anywhere from six to 10 million, which is still pretty notable in the world of consolidated companies and so forth. It could be a little less on certain deals, but that’s the general idea. 

Is it different when you’re dealing with retrans? Or do you just do national O&O deals?

RF: No, we’re doing the station group stuff. So you can think about large station groups like Sinclair and others. I think we make more sense for both sides if it's a large station group as opposed to one that only has a few stations and only affects a  few members. I think we are very focused on trying to help large station groups and large groups of  members that are part of that.      

We started off with the O&O stuff five years ago, a little bit over three years ago we did our first set of station group deals. This last round at the end of 2020, we essentially doubled the size of the station group deals.

Are you expecting that to grow?

RF: Yes. I think it’s been successful. It’s painful because they are hard deals. I think that most members see value in us helping them with that. And I think the stations see value in that efficiency as well. 

In 2017, you reached a deal for members with Mobi TV, which is going through a Chapter 11 restructuring, but it looks for now that the relationship will continue.

RF: Mobi has done a fabulous job for a lot of our member companies and it’s been embraced in a fairly quick way. Yes, Mobi is dealing with some financial issues. There are a lot of reasons for why that happened, but one of the most easily understandable ones is that they were counting on fairly high growth on their platform last year. They had been in the market long enough that a number of cable operators had been launched and the pattern for  operators to step on the gas and convert legacy video systems to Mobi seemed to be in alignment. So 2020 was supposed to be the growth year. 

COVID hit and cable operators found it very challenging to do anything that involved getting into the consumer home to switch out video systems. You combine that with the fact that the demand for broadband went through the roof in most of these markets, so operators had to reshift the resources to focus on that broadband growth and network reliability. Mobi, unfortunately, became impacted by that negatively. The growth just didn't happen. 

The good news is I think these operators are back in the saddle, trying to move forward to reignite their growth on Mobi deployments. But Mobi first has got to get through this financial restructuring and/or sales process. Chapter 11 activities are somewhat opaque. They’ve got a relatively short time to work through this and we’re very supportive of them and glad to help Mobi and/or other companies that are willing to help Mobi through investment. We’re super-supportive of them. I think our members have felt like they’ve done an excellent job. So we’re engaged, there are some areas I can’t talk about because of NDA stuff, but I can say that Mobi has been a super service and it’s been great for small operators and some of our large members as well.

Looking forward to the rest of this year, is there anything you want to do or accomplish before you hang it up?

RF: There are probably a lot of things I want to do but I probably will not get to do. Time seems to be slipping away faster than I thought. I guess it comes down to do the best I can to help the new CEO. If there are projects or things I can do to help them with after that, somewhere in that ecosystem, I’m glad to do it, but I feel like I’m probably more limited in terms of the impact I can have for the rest of the year, other than just making sure that we’ve got a really good direction set with the new person being there at the NCTC. 

Will you help with the search?

RF: We retained a search firm, Carlsen Resources, one of the best in the business. [They’ve] been working on it for a while now and I think have surfaced some good candidates.

Do you think you’ll have a candidate soon?

RF: I think so. I think the plan is to have somebody hired and in place maybe within the next six-to-eight weeks. Maybe it takes longer. Maybe it might be June before they actually can take all of the reins, but it is in that time frame. 

Is there anything you're most proud of during your time at NCTC, and is there anything you wish you could have done while you were there, but couldn’t? 

RF: Proud, in my book, it’s a team thing. I guess the pride is from the standpoint that member companies, in many cases suppliers, and our staff rallied to address challenges and also to seize opportunities. When I first started in the cable industry a long time ago, that was the norm. But as the industry evolved and large companies emerged, the cooperation with the industry was diluted. Larger companies had a mindset of their own R&D, their own capabilities, less willing to share. The experience at the NCTC, which I think we helped contribute more to in terms of building up that level of cooperation, is wonderful to see. Because it’s kind of the way I started my career in the industry and probably the way I'll be ending my career in the industry, which is seeing an uncommonly high level of cooperation for the common good of building a better business. How many times can you see opportunities like that? I feel very grateful.

On the wishful side, we have 700 companies and there are all types of ownership structures. Some are public but a lot of these companies are also third- or fourth-generation family-owned companies. The richness of the ownership and the people who lead those companies is amazing. My biggest regret is somehow I never seemed to make enough time to have developed more of those relationships in depth, because these people are amazing, 

If I had somehow a chance to do it over, I would try to figure out ways to shift time to be more with those folks. Just a personal thing, they’re just amazing people.  To hear the stories of all the challenges they had and running these companies successfully for years and years and years. 

Is that your advice for the next person that comes in?

RF: Yes. I regret not doing more of it. I think I did OK at it, but regret not doing more. I think it’s a foundational element of trust that is essential for a cooperative to be successful. People have to get to know you. And I think it's enriching in both directions.    

Three Capitol Broadcasting stations have gone dark on Dish in a retrans dispute the blame for which each is laying at the other's feet.

In a press release, Dish said that Capitol had ignored its request for an extension and left its customers in the dark.

The stations at issue are NBC affiliate WRAL-TV and Fox affiliate WRAZ-TV, both Raleigh-Durham, and independent WILM-TV Wilmington.

Also Read: Verizon Warns Viewers Hearst Signals Could Come Down

“We don't understand why Capitol Broadcasting has chosen to put our customers in the middle of these negotiations,” said Melisa Boddie, programming VP for Dish. “We offered an extension to keep these stations up for customers while negotiations continued, but Capitol never responded. Instead, they ignored our offer and forced a blackout of three North Carolina TV stations.”

She said Dish remains open to working on a fair, long-term deal.

Capitol saw it quite differently, as WRAL pointed out on its website.

"WRAL and FOX 50 [WRAZ] have fallen victim to the same fate as hundreds of other local TV stations across the country, removed by Dish after they refuse to reach a fair agreement to carry our stations," it said in an "important message" on its website (https://www.wral.com/wral-DISH-FOX50-keep-my-local-stations/16921951/.

"Welcome to the modern-day David vs. Goliath," Capitol said. "We are one of the few small, locally owned broadcasters left in the country. As the broadcasting business changes, we're fighting for our livelihood and our ability to bring you the exceptional news and programming you expect."

Capitol concedes the issue is the price for its signals. "We are choosing to not be bullied into essentially giving away our programming to a company that resells it so they can make millions," it said. "We do not think it is right."

As to Capitol never responding to a Dish offer, the company said Wednesday (Dec. 30) that was not the case, adding this to the WGAL web site story on the issue: "That is simply not true. A negotiation requires both parties to participate fully, and, at this point, Capitol has not yet received a return proposal from DISH to our last proposal that was submitted before this dispute began."

Per FCC rules, Verizon has started warning Fios customers they may lose access to Hearst Television stations at month's end.

Verizon said Hearst is demanding "unreasonably large" increases in retransmission consent fees that may force Verizon to raise rates for its customers. 

“Affordable local news is vital and customers want quality at-home entertainment, especially during a pandemic, so Verizon is surprised that Hearst Television is demanding pay increases that might keep Fios customers from watching their channels," Verizon said in a statement. "We urge Hearst Television to get serious about reaching a fair agreement and hope they will not remove their channels while negotiations continue.”

Also Read: Retrans Season Starts With a Bang

The Hearst channels at issue include WBAL Baltimore (NBC), WGAL Harrisburg (NBC), WTAE Pittsburgh (ABC), WCVB Boston (ABC) and WMUR Manchester, N.H. (ABC).

The two companies have a complex relationship, given that Verizon and Hearst are elsewhere 50/50 partners in Complex Networks, a suite of online brands.

A Verizon spokesperson also said there could be potential issues with carriage of a couple of Gray Television stations, WWBT (NBC) and WUVP (CW) Richmond, Va., based on "[Gray's] actions with other companies," they said, without elaboration.

Also Read: Comcast Says it Reaches Hearst TV Retrans Deal

A Hearst TV spokesperson declined comment.  

"Over the last ten years, Gray has signed more than 1,000 retransmission consent agreements," said a Gray TV spokesperson, who added they could count on one had --"with fingers to spare"--the number of times Gray has not reached such agreements. "So, if Verizon is serious about reaching a deal [at] today’s marketplace rates for our top-rated stations in Richmond, a deal will get done," they said.

Nexstar Media has begun criticizing Dish Network in commercials on its stations as the retransmission dispute that has blacked out channels in 115 markets enters its third week.

Also Read: Nexstar Stations Removed from Dish in 115 Markets

The spot claims that Dish’s CEO has a habit of blacking out stations and networks, and that it makes money when it does. 

Nexstar urges viewers to all Dish and demand credit.

The dispute also has made WGN America unavailable to Dish subscribers.

Nexstar's stations are also running the commercials on their Facebook pages.

"Unfortunately, Dish has made a practice of dropping networks and local television stations from its programming line-up," a Nexstar spokesman said. "There are currently more than 200 channels off its system.  Our negotiations aren’t going as quickly as we would like, due largely to Dish's inability to respond quickly to the multiple proposals we have made during the last two-plus weeks.”  

In the spot, Nexstar shows networks including HBO, Cinemax and NFL Network, along with a number of station logos, and says these are channels Dish has dropped in the past.

“Dropping local stations and networks is Dish’s thing,” an announcer says. “Their CEO says it’s profitable. Doesn’t matter what his customers must endure or for how long. He’s saving Dish money.” 

The spot says that right now, Dish had dropped more than 200 local stations, cable channels and regional sports networks.

“If Dish is treating you this way, call them. Call Dish and demand the credit you deserve,” it says, while flashing Dish’s phone number on the screen.

“Dish successfully reaches hundreds of agreements with programmers every year without disrupting viewers," Dish said in a statement. "We’ve made five separate proposals to Nexstar over the past two weeks, and the ball’s currently in their court. Nexstar has intentionally slowed their responses in order to use viewers as leverage." 

The retransmission-consent season is officially upon us, with two major blackouts already begun and more likely on the way. 

At press time, the two major satellite-TV providers — DirecTV and Dish Network — lost access to stations owned by Tegna and Nexstar Media Group, respectively. They are a mix of the Big Four broadcasters (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox), independents and affiliates of The CW and MyNetworkTV. 

Tegna pulled the signals of its 60 TV stations in 52 markets from DirecTV and U-verse TV customers at 7 p.m. ET on Dec. 1, ending days of speculation. The station group had given DirecTV a one-day extension of its original deal, set to expire on Nov. 30, usually a sign that talks are progressing. But that was not the case as the Tegna stations went dark after the new deadline passed without a deal.

On its station websites, Tegna claims its rate increases are market-based and reflect the quality programming it provides, pointing to the “hundreds of deals” it has reached with other distributors. 

“Those providers all felt that they were able to reach a fair deal with us while continuing to offer value to their subscribers,” Tegna said. “There is no reason why this negotiation with DirecTV and AT&T U-Verse should be different.”

Carriage Offer Rejected

DirecTV and U-verse TV parent AT&T, citing the importance of unfettered access to local news during a pandemic, urged Tegna to keep the stations live to its customers as talks continued, but that offer was not taken. 

“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,” AT&T said in a statement. “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.”

Dish Network first warned of the possible Dec. 2 loss of 164 Nexstar stations on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 26). That warning became reality at 7 p.m. on Dec. 2.

As usual, the dispute is centered on money. Dish claims Nexstar is demanding record setting rate hikes — the “shocking increase is the highest we’ve ever seen,” Dish TV group president Brian Neylon said in a press release. Nexstar fired back, saying it has made several reasonable offers, all rejected by Dish, since the talks started in July. 

While the length of the blackouts could go either way — DirecTV said in a statement that past Tegna disruptions of service lasted mere hours or days — other potential disputes with other distributors are beginning to queue up. 

Comcast faces retrans negotiations with about 79 stations across its footprint. Many of those — about 31 — are owned by its NBC and Telemundo units, so talks are expected to be at least cordial. But there are another 43 stations owned by Hearst TV, Cox Media Group and Hubbard Broadcasting that are also due for renewal. About 38 out-of-market stations owned by Hearst could be dropped on Dec. 22. 

“On December 22, 2020, we may be removing some TV stations from neighboring markets,” Comcast said on its Xfinity customer support site. “Our agreements with broadcasters expire from time to time. We’re currently negotiating with the stations’ owner to be able to continue carrying the signals of its stations.”

That comment changed over the past few days: Earlier in the week, Comcast said on its customer support website that it would be removing the channels. Now the subtle change could hint that the two may be closer to an overall deal that includes the out-of-market properties. Only time will tell. 

Out-of-Market Issues

Even if those out-of-market stations go away, neither side should be too upset. Comcast wasn’t paying for them before and won’t be if it drops them. And the viewers affected weren’t being counted in the Hearst stations’ ratings because they aren’t in the same DMA. Once the duplicate stations are removed, residents in those affected markets can still access that station’s local news, either via their respective websites or through the NewsON app, which offers free access to local news from more than 275 stations in 165 markets.

Hearst Television declined comment.

Comcast also faces retrans negotiations in January with three stations owned by Sunbeam Television: WHDH (independent) in Boston; WLVI (The CW) in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and WSVN (Fox) in Miami, Florida. Sunbeam has been a fairly aggressive retrans negotiator in the past — it blacked out DirecTV customers in 2012 and in 2016 for a few weeks — but hasn’t had any major scuffles recently. 

Dish Network said its customers could lose access to as many as 164 Nexstar Media Group stations in 42 states across the country if it cannot hammer out a retransmission consent agreement with the broadcaster by Dec. 2.

Nexstar is the  largest local broadcast station group in the country and has properties in all the major cities, including Los Angeles (KTLA), Chicago (WGN) and Dallas (KDAF), as well as smaller markets that have been Dish’s stronghold over the past several years. 

In a press release, Dish TV group president Brian Neylon said the broadcaster is demanding exorbitant rate increases for its broadcast stations as well as forcing the satellite company to carry its cable channel WGN America. 

“This shocking increase is the highest we’ve ever seen,” Neylon said in a press release. “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.”

On its station websites, Nexstar confirmed that Dish customers could lose access to their programming. But they stressed that their offer is fair and that the ball was in the satellite giant’s court.

“Despite our tireless efforts, Dish has refused our fair offer and is making negotiations very difficult,” Nexstar said on its station sites. “You might have seen them do this before. They will tell you it’s for your benefit, but don’t believe it. Our offer is fair. And now they hold you the subscriber hostage. It’s not right.”

Nexstar is no stranger to retrans battles. Last year about 120 of its stations went dark to AT&T DirecTV and U-verse customers. That impasse lasted nearly two months.

Dish has been more than willing to ride out long blackout periods to get favorable rates. Last year Spanish-language broadcaster Univision was dark to Dish customers for nine months weeks before a deal was reached. The satellite giant dropped premium channel HBO more than a year ago, and still hasn’t reached a deal. 

One rarely hears about a station group deciding not to pursue lucrative retransmission consent fees but when E.W. Scripps agreed to acquire Ion Media for $2.65 billion, it said the Ion stations would stick to must-carry.

Analysts initially said they were surprised by the unusual strategy and asked about it during a conference call in which Scripps executives went over details of the transaction.

“Just so I’m 100% clear, there’s no affiliate fees or retrans today from Ion and your plan is that going forward, you’re not necessarily looking for a subscription supported carriage model on the content,” asked Steven Cahall of Wells Fargo. “Is that right?”

“That’s correct,” answered Scripps CEO Adam Symson. “The fees that Ion receives are immaterial and no, we will continue to elect must-carry because Ion’s model, as does [Scripps’ Katz Networks units] depends on the broadest distribution possible in the pay TV ecosystem.”

Cable operators might be able to breathe a rare sigh of relief. Usually the first thing that happens after stations are acquired, the new owner looks to use the leverage of a larger company to force distributors to pay higher fees.

But not Scripps. Not this time.

“This is a unique situation,” said Justin Nielson, senior analyst at Kagan, the media research unit of S&P Global Market Intelligence. “I think it is really because Ion has been unsuccessful in doing its own retrans deals.”

Nielsen said that three years ago Ion tested the market to see if it could get retrans fees, but was rebuffed. Ion’s failure to push harder for retrans scuttled a possible joint venture with 21st Century Fox. Ion affiliates have also been unable to push cable operators to pay retrans fees, Nielsen said.

While foregoing fees, opting for must-carry assures stations that their programming streams will be distributed by cable operators and satellite services. Avoiding a tough negotiation avoids disrupting Ion’s advertising business. 

Scripps, which had $382.7 million in retransmission revenues in 2019, up 27% from 2018, is no stranger to retransmission battles. Scripps stations were blacked out for five weeks starting in July in a dispute with Dish Network. Dish claimed Scripps was seeking a 250% increase in retrans fees. Scripps denied seeking a hike that size.

In the case of Ion, distributors might have a good reason for not wanting to pay fees, because they don’t have local programming or local news, Nielson noted.

Under Scripps, they could, especially in areas where Scripps already has news operations. “Instead of saying that’s something they may explore down the line, they state we’re going to keep the status quo--must carry--for distribution," he said.

Angling for retrans also might not sit well with Wall Street. Scripps is pitching its Ion deal as a free-over-the air play, and analysts have been downgrading programmers as the number of pay TV subs erode.

Scripps is pitching the Ion acquisition to Wall Street  in part as a bet on an over-the-air TV comeback.

“Over the air may not be sexy, at least not yet,” Symson said. “But Ion and Katz are proof that there is a lot of value being created there. Scripps bought Katz Networks--which runs Bounce, Court TV, Court TV Mystery, Laff and Grit--in 2017 for $292 million.

Symson said that it has been tracking a “renaissance” in over-the-air viewing. “While most people are only focused on the variety of internet streaming options for TV, they’re missing the reality that over-the-air television has been growing right alongside the digital over-the-top platforms.”

Although it owns TV stations that broadcast its programming, Ion is a lot like a cable network. Just 20% of its viewing comes from over-the-air, which is why must-carry is important.

“It looks like a cable network and it reaches the nation's cable and satellite TV households like a cable network, but at its core it's an over-the-air broadcast business that reaches cord cutters and cord-nevers on the growing free over-the-air television platform,” Symson said. Ion “outperforms The CW and many cable networks you probably thought were bigger," he added.

One way Ion is like a cable network is its profit margin, which is 50%. “It's an efficient business built on the back of its national reach,” Symson said.

The Katz Networks are similar, being broadcast on TV stations’ secondary digital channels but increasingly getting carriage on cable and dependent on national advertising for revenue.

The Katz Networks will be a big beneficiary of the Ion deal because Ion stations will broadcast the Katz Networks in their markets, instead of Katz paying stations to carry its signals. Those payments are one of Katz’s biggest expenses. Eliminating those costs are a big part of distribution synergies Scripps said will be worth $120 million a year in six years, when all the existing agreements lapse.

Scripps is pinning its hopes on the national advertising market. Despite the drop in the economy caused by the pandemic, Katz’s revenue have been up 14% during the first six months of the year. The company said it expects Ion’s revenues to grow in the low double digit range.

“There is no string of search words, no display advertising, nor any targeted Facebook ads that can command the attention nor evoke an emotion like television advertising,” Symson said.

Scripps said it has no plans to begin investing in expensive original programming for Ion. “I wouldn't forecast any near-term changes in the programming strategy because it's been very very effective,” Symson said, endorsing the strategy of buying successful off-network shows instead of trying to create its own hits.

Symson didn’t say what roles Ion CEO Brandon Burgess would have in Scripps’ new national television group, including Ion, Katz and Newsy.

“Over the next couple of months we’ll kick off a project working with Ion's leadership team, the leadership team at Katz and in the leadership team at Newsy to create an integration plan so that we can really build a new Scripps Networks business, inclusive leadership and culture from across all of the different businesses,” he said.

Scripps will be selling off 23 of the Ion TV stations to a buyer who will keep them as Ion affiliates. It recently sold off its Stitcher podcast business and WPIX-TV, New York.

But it has no plans to sell its spectrum--now combined with Ion, the biggest collection of spectrum in the industry.

“We would be monetizing it as an operator. Not as a seller,” Symson said of the spectrum. “Being the largest holder of broadcast spectrum in the country puts us in a very good position to play a leadership role as the industry develops new ways to reach the American consumer, with data with programming, through our existing multicast and new programming strategies.”

Scripps stock jumped from Wednesday’s close of $10.47 to $13.90 after the deal was announced Thursday. It lost some steam and closed Thursday at $11.27. On Friday, Scripps share edged up to $11.62. 

“First impressions on E.W. Scripps’ deal for Ion Media is that it is a transformational acquisition combining the local station and network assets into a nationwide TV platform with a reach of over 100 million homes,” said Kagan’s Nielson in a note. “This large a deal is a big gamble given current market conditions, but could pay off big for E.W. Scripps and it’s investors including Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway.”

Television stations in 10 markets owned by Apollo Global Asset Management went dark to Dish Network customers at 7 p.m. ET Saturday, after the parties could not reach a retransmission consent agreement.

The stations had warned Dish customers that they may lose access to their programming if a deal was not reached. Dish had said Apollo was asking for double the rate it previously received for the properties.

“Apollo doesn’t care how high a customer’s bill gets. It's trying to squeeze every last penny out of consumers to recoup the billions it spent buying these stations,” said Dish senior VP of programming Andy LeCuyer in a press release. “They are fund managers built to serve wealthy private investors, not local viewers. For Apollo it’s about a number. For Dish it’s about customers.”

The stations were formerly owned by Northwest Broadcasting and previously went dark to DirecTV customers last year for about eight months. 

On its station websites, the Apollo stations expressed disappointment, and urged Dish customers to drop the satellite company.

“Despite prolonged negotiations, it appears that Dish is unwilling to carry KLAX beginning at 6:00 PM [CST], January 18th, 2020,” Apollo station KLAX-TV said on its website. “As a result, KLAX will no longer be seen on Dish as of January 18, 2020. Our programming will remain available for viewers over the air, and this dispute will not affect customers of any other video provider. Call Dish today to let them know how you feel. ...Let Dish know that you do have other options, like DirecTV and Suddenlink.”

The stations involved in the blackout are: KLAX-TV (ABC, Alexandria, La.); WICZ-TV, (FOX, Binghamton, N.Y.); WBPN (MNT, Binghamton, N.Y.); KIEM-TV (NBC, Eureka, Calif.); KVIQ-TV (CBS, Eureka, Calif.); WABG-TV (ABC, Greenwood-Greenville, Miss.); :WABGD-TV, (FOX, Greenwood-Greenville, Miss.); WNBD-TV, (NBC, Greenwood-Greenville, Miss.); WXVT-TV (CBS, Greenwood-Greenville, Miss.); KPVI-TV (NBC, Idaho Falls-Pocatello, Idaho); KMVU-TV (FOX, Medford-Klamath Falls, Ore.); KFBI-TV (MNT, Medford-Klamath Falls, Ore.); KAYU-TV (FOX, Spokane, Wash.); WSYT-TV (FOX, Syracuse, N.Y.); WNYS-TV (MNT, Syracuse, N.Y.); KCYU-TV (FOX, Yakima-Pasco-Richland-Kennewick, Wash.); KSWT-TV (CBS, Yuma AZ - El Centro, Calif.); KYMA-TV (NBC, Yuma AZ - El Centro, Calif.)

Dish said it has avoided a larger blackout of Apollo stations after receiving a temporary restraining order in Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, to prevent Apollo from blacking out 14 local Cox Media channels. Apollo purchased the Cox Media stations in February. 

Dish said it is offering free antennas to capture the broadcast signal to qualified customers in the affected markets. Customers also have the option to completely drop local channels from their programming package and save $12 on their monthly bill.

Dish will install an antenna for qualifying customers in affected markets based on the expected reception available at their home. Local station availability over the air is dependent on geographic location and topography. Consequently, some customer locations may not qualify for an antenna installation.

Mediacom Communications customers could be without Nexstar Media Group stations in the New Year if the parties fail to renew a retransmission consent agreement that is set to expire on Dec. 31.

Mediacom has about 730,000 video subscribers across the country, many of whom are concentrated in the state of Iowa, where the upcoming Iowa Caucus could play a role in the talks. The Caucus is scheduled for Feb. 3 and is usually a wellspring of broadcast advertising dollars leading up to the actual vote. Any disruption in how viewers access broadcast stations could have an impact on ad revenue during that period.

According to sources familiar with both companies, the talks have slowed, especially as Nexstar also is negotiating a much larger retrans deal with Comcast that expires at around the same time.

Nexstar officials did not immediately return a request for comment.

AT&T said it has reached a retransmission consent agreement with four television stations owned by Deerfield Media, ending a six-month blackout.

The stations involved were KBTV, a Fox affiliate in Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas; WSTR, a MyNetwork TV affiliate in Cincinnati, Ohio; and WJTC, an independent station and WPMI, an NBC affiliate both in Mobile, Ala. and Pensacola, Fla.

AT&T declined comment but confirmed that the stations, of about 17 that went dark around May 31,  were returned to its AT&T TV, U-verse and DirecTV customers Nov. 6. Of the remaining 13 stations (owned by MPS Media, GoCom Media, Howard Stirk Holdings, Roberts Media, Second Generation of Iowa, and Waitt Broadcasting) only GoCom Media -- which owns about three stations in Champaign-Decatur, Ill. -- has returned to AT&T customers, reaching a deal in October. 

Fox Corp. and Charter Communications said they have reached a long-term carriage deal for the former’s news, sports and entertainment channels, including an agreement to address unauthorized access to content.

The agreement covers distribution of the Fox Television Stations, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, FS1, FS2, Big Ten Network, and Fox Deportes, as well as video on demand and TV Everywhere rights for the channels.

“We are pleased that our renewed agreement provides Charter customers with continued access to our entire suite of networks and expands the ways in which they can access the Fox brands through additional video-on-demand and TV Everywhere platforms,” Fox president of operations and distribution Michael Biard said in a press release. “We appreciate Charter’s professional and collaborative approach throughout this process, and we look forward to expanding on our partnership in the days ahead.”

One of Charter chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge’s pet peeves over the past several years -- password sharing -- also is addressed in the new agreement. 

In the press release, Charter EVP programming acquisition Tom Montemagno said the pact “allows continued access to all of the Fox programming for our customers and FOX viewers, but it will also amplify our mutual efforts to address piracy and abusive password sharing issues. We appreciate Fox’s desire to further collaborate as the video landscape continues to evolve.”

Charter Communications said it has reached a carriage agreement with broadcaster Tegna, avoiding a blackout that would have affected millions of subscribers across the country.

Tegna first began warning Charter customers that they could lose access to programming from its 45 stations in 37 markets across the country -- including St. Louis, Dallas, Cleveland and Atlanta -- on Sept. 30. The broadcaster’s retransmission consent deal was scheduled to expire that evening, but shortly after the warning, Tegna said that it had granted the cable operator an extension, a sign that negotiations were progressing. 

Charter announced it had reached a deal via Twitter on Sunday morning: “We reached an agreement with Tegna to provide local ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and other multi-cast channels to our customers,” Charter said in the tweet. “We are pleased to have reached a fair agreement for everyone and appreciate your support and patience.”

[embed]https://twitter.com/Ask_Spectrum/status/1180466526031360001[/embed]

Cox Communications said it has reached a long-term carriage deal with Fox Corp. that covers its broadcast stations and its news and sports networks.

According to the deal, terms of which were not disclosed, Cox will carry Fox’s owned and operated television stations in its territories, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, sports channels FS1 and FS2, Big Ten Network and Fox Deportes.

“This renewal extends the productive partnership we’ve long had with Cox and ensures that millions of our viewers across the country will continue to enjoy Fox’s leading sports, entertainment and news programming for years to come,” Fox president of operations and distribution Michael Biard said in a press release. 

Sinclair Broadcast Group is warning AT&T customers across the country that they could lose access to 136 stations in 86 markets affiliated with the Big Four networks if their retransmission consent deal isn’t renewed.

Sinclair said its original carriage deal with AT&T expired in August, but the broadcaster granted a five-week extension while talks continued. Those negotiations have apparently reached an impasse, prompting Sinclair to warn DirecTV, AT&T TV Now,and U-verse customers of the potential for a blackout. The extension will expire at 5 p.m. ET on Sept, 27, according to Sinclair.

“AT&T is the largest MVPD in the country and seems intent on using its tremendous market power to dictate to viewers which programming from other content providers they can receive, even as they continue to acquire content providers and push their own content to viewers,” Sinclair SVP and general counsel David Gibber said in a press release. “Despite the tremendous market power of AT&T, most consumers of AT&T and DirecTV do have some other alternatives to receive our in-demand programming. Although it would be unfortunate to lose AT&T and DirecTV as customers, we are simply not prepared to sell our programming to them at the below market rates they are demanding due to their overwhelming market power.”

Of the Sinclair stations go dark, they would be the third programmer to pull their content from AT&T in the past several months. On May 30 about 17 stations in smaller markets -- many of them managed by Sinclair -- went dark to AT&T in a retrans dispute. Last month, regional sports network Altitude Sports and Entertainment went dark to DirecTV and Comcast customers. Earlier this month The Walt Disney Co. warned AT&T customers that their networks could go dark. Those talks continue, and the channels remain available to customers.

Sinclair said it has and will continue to negotiate in good faith to reach a deal, but didn’t seem overly optimistic, pointing out that AT&T has established a “pattern of insistence on terms that greatly undervalue the content of local broadcasters.”

In a statement, AT&T said that Sinclair controls nearly 200 stations in 100 markets across the country, and recently spent about $10 billion buying regional sports networks and routinely threatens to pull access to those assets for one purpose: to drive up affiliate fees. 

"Sinclair has made egregious demands for broad carriage and payment on one of the most expensive single-team RSNs ever with the Cubs in Chicago; for carriage of multiple cable channels that don’t even exist or that Sinclair hopes to someday acquire; and for RSNs that aren’t even up for renewal – just to name a few," AT&T said in a statement, adding that it will continue to negotiate in good faith with the broadcaster.

"We are on the side of customer choice and value and hope to avoid any interruption to channels some may care about," AT&T continued. "Our goal is simple – to deliver the content our customers want at a value that also makes sense to . And to enable anyone the freedom to experience favorite shows, channels and teams wherever, whenever and using whatever device they may choose."

AT&T and Nexstar Media Group said they have reached a multi-year retransmission consent agreement for the latter’s 120 TV stations in 97 markets, effectively ending a blackout that began nearly two months ago.

In a press release, AT&T said the Nexstar stations will return to its DirecTV, AT&T TV Now and U-verse platforms.

“Our customers want more choice and value and we are pleased to deliver that through this new agreement with Nexstar and its many local stations,” AT&T Communications SVP of content and programming Rob Thun said in a press release.

This is the second major retrans deal AT&T has reached in the past few weeks. On Aug. 8, AT&T reached a carriage deal with CBS for the broadcaster’s owned and operated stations in 17 markets, ending a three week blackout. The telephone company still is embroiled in a retrans spat with 17 smaller stations that began on May 30. 

“Nexstar’s long-standing commitment is to provide exceptional programming and service to the local communities we serve across the United States and this new multi-year agreement will allow us to continue delivering our stations’ leading network and sports content as well as local news and other programming to AT&T subscribers in our markets,” Nexstar SVP distribution Keith Hopkins said in a press release.

Both companies said they regretted inconveniencing their customers, viewers, and advertisers.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

CBS stations in 14 markets went dark to AT&T Uverse, DirecTV and DirecTV Now customers at 11 p.m. Pacific Time (2 a.m. Eastern) Saturday, after both sides failed to reach a retransmission consent deal.

CBS began warning customers it may go dark on July 16. On Saturday it made good on that promise, with stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta, Tampa, Seattle, Detroit, Minneapolis, Miami, Denver, Sacramento, Pittsburgh and Baltimore going dark to DirecTV, Uverse and DirecTV Now customers. In addition, 117 CBS stations and affiliates were dropped on DirecTV Now, CBS Sports Network was removed from DirecTV and DirecTV Now and the Smithsonian Channel was removed from DirecTV.

“After months of negotiations, CBS is simply looking to receive fair value for its popular programming and is proposing economic terms similar to those that AT&T’s competitors have accepted in hundreds of our recent distribution agreements,” CBS said in a press release. “The DirecTV deal expiring tonight was signed in 2012 and is nowhere close to today’s fair market terms for CBS content – to which AT&T's competitors have repeatedly agreed.”

CBS said it had granted AT&T an extension earlier this month to continue to work out a deal, but its offer of a 30-day extension was rejected.

AT&T said it has been working to hammer out an agreement for months as well. On Friday it said it offered CBS a rate that was higher than any it has ever paid to a broadcaster, but was turned down. The company said that customers could access CBS programming over the air, via web app Locast or through a device called the Local Channel Connector. AT&T had attempted to gain permission to sell CBS All Access, the broadcaster’s streaming service, to customers but was rejected. Customers can still purchase CBS All Access on their own.

“We were willing to continue to negotiate and also offered to pay CBS an unprecedented rate increase,” AT&T said in a press release. “That increase would present CBS the highest fee we currently pay to any major broadcast network group, despite the fact that CBS stations are available free over the air.”

“We had hoped to avoid any unnecessary interruption to any CBS-owned stations or national channels that some of our customers care about,” AT&T continued. “But CBS refused.”

Related: AT&T Takes its Side of Carriage Issues to Hill 

Now the only question that remains is how long the blackout will last -- the college football and NFL seasons start in September, which could add pressure to the negotiations. And in the back of every distributor’s mind in the month-long blackout between CBS and Time Warner Cable (now Charter Communications) in 2013 that resulted in record video subscriber losses for the operator. 

AT&T already is fighting retrans battles with Nexstar Media Group (126 stations) and a group of 17 smaller stations in 14 markets. This blackout pushes the number of stations dark to AT&T video customers to 162.

But this time is different. Locast, the non-profit local broadcast app that provides free access to over-the-air broadcasters in about 13 markets, including seven of the affected CBS broadcast locations. The Locast app has been available on Uverse and DirecTV set-tops since May 30. Then there is Local Channel Connector, a device that puts local broadcasts into the program guides of DirecTV customers with Genie set-tops. 

“Make no mistake. We want the CBS owned-and-operated local broadcast stations in our lineup,” AT&T said in its press release. “Yet customers today are demanding more choice and value from their local stations. Instead, it has become clear to us that CBS is intent on blacking out any home that chooses to receive cable or satellite service, antagonizing its most loyal viewers.”

AT&T said it has offered CBS an “unprecedented rate increase” and the highest fee it would pay any other broadcast group to avoid a blackout of the broadcaster’s 19 TV stations as an 11 p.m.(PT) deadline looms.

CBS warned DirecTV, DirecTV Now and AT&T Uverse customers on July 16 that they could lose access to the broadcaster’s programming on July 19 if a deal wasn’t reached. The broadcaster claimed that AT&T was proposing “unfair terms,” despite its good faith efforts to negotiate. 

If the 19 CBS stations (14 CBS properties and five The CW affiliates) go dark, that will bring the number of broadcast stations blacked out to AT&T customers to 162 -- 17 stations owned by a group of seven broadcasters went dark on May 31 and 126 Nexstar stations went dark to AT&T customers July 3. 

In a statement July 19, AT&T said it has “offered to pay CBS an unprecedented rate increase and the highest fee we currently pay to any major broadcast network group. CBS has refused.”

The carrier added that it also asked if it could sell CBS’ streaming service -- CBS All Access streaming service -- to its affected customers, but CBS declined.

Aside from the leverage that blackouts give broadcasters in retrans negotiations -- pay TV lobbying group ATVA said 213 stations went dark this year alone, tying a 2017 record, and a blackout of the CBS stations would set a new benchmark -- AT&T said CBS’s motivation is in part to drive subscriptions to its streaming product.

Related: AT&T: Customers Have Their Own Weapons in Retrans Disputes

“Given these factors, it’s become clear to us that CBS is intent on blacking out any home that chooses to receive cable or satellite service to up-sell CBS All Access subscriptions. CBS has said publicly that between 2018 and the end of this year it will significantly increase prices on roughly 75 percent of any homes that opt to receive their content via cable or satellite,” AT&T said in its statement. “CBS has also said publicly that it priced All Access that much higher to capitalize on customers it can capture from cable, satellite or other means of distribution.”

CBS officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Related: Saturday in the Park (Not) 

AT&T said it wants to reach a deal to keep the stations on its lineup. But it added that customers have alternatives to continue to access the programming through the Locast app, which offers over the air service in about seven of the 14 markets affected. Customers also can receive a Local Channel Connector, which puts local broadcast station signals into the program guides of many DIRECTV customers with Genie receivers, for free.

“Our goal is simple: to deliver the content our customers want at a value that also makes sense to them,” AT&T said in its statement. “We continue to fight for that here and appreciate our customers’ patience.”

AT&T, facing its third broadcast blackout in a little more than a month, is telling customers that they can access broadcast programming for free using services like Locast and devices such as the Local Channel Connector.

CBS dropped the latest retrans bomb on the distributors Tuesday, saying that while it is hopeful it can reach a deal, it is worried it may not as AT&T continues to demand “unfair terms.” AT&T has countered, saying it wants to keep the channels available, but at a rate that is fair to consumers.

CBS warned that is a deal isn’t reached by 11 p.m (PT) on July 19, its stations in more than a dozen markets will go dark to AT&T Uverse, DirecTV and DirecTV Now customers. On its website KeepCBS.com, the broadcaster urges customers to contact DirecTV and ask them to keep the channel on the air. 

Missing is the usual suggestion that customers switch to another provider, access programming over the air, or even subscribe to its streaming service CBS All Access for uninterrupted access to its shows. Maybe that’s coming after the deal expires, but until then, AT&T has a few of its own suggestions.

Perhaps frustrated by the barrage of retrans battles it is fighting -- it is currently enduring two other blackouts with Nexstar Media Group and a group of 17 stations in 14 markets -- AT&T expanded on the legalese that is typical of such disputes, telling customers they can fight back on their own.

According to AT&T, the fees that local station owners charge distributors have doubled in the past five years, while primetime audiences have fallen by about half, as per S&P Global’s Kagan unit and Nielsen. At the same time, major producers have bolted from broadcasters to create programming for multichannel services for more money and more freedom.

“The talent goes elsewhere, the audiences follow, and yet stations refuse to evolve, shutting off the same communities they are licensed to serve,” AT&T said in its statement, adding that so far this year more than 200 station blackouts have occurred, 20% more than the 165 in 2018.”

To be fair, CBS is still the most watched broadcast network in the country, with shows like Young Sheldon, NCIS, Blue Bloods and others attracting strong ratings. Its sports programming is highly watched and respected. And if the dispute lasts long enough, AT&T risks its customers losing access to college football -- the SEC Game of the Week starts on Sept. 14 -- and NFL football, which begins Sept. 8. 

While in the past pay TV customers just had to grin and bear it until a deal was reached, AT&T is telling them that there are viable alternatives. The first: a product called Local Channel Connector, which puts local signals into program guides of DirecTV customers with Genie set-top boxes. Customers can get a free Local Channel Connector by calling AT&T. In one dispute, -- an eight-month blackout of NBC affiliate KSL-TV in Salt Lake City, AT&T handed out 10,000 Local Channel Connectors. 

The second: Locast, the non-profit local broadcast app that provides free access to over-the-air broadcasters in about 13 markets. In the CBS dispute, Locast offers service in about seven of the affected CBS broadcast locations. The Locast app has been available on Uverse and DirecTV set-tops since May 30.

AT&T has been a backer of Locast -- it contributed about $500,000 to the Sports Fan Coalition, the non-profit organization that runs Locast, in June.

In its statement, AT&T stressed that it still wants to reach a retrans deal with CBS and every other station with which it has a dispute. But it isn’t going to just lie there and take it.

“Make no mistake. We want the CBS owned-and-operated and Nexstar local stations in our lineups, and their multimillion dollar misinformation campaigns are a waste of everyone’s time, patience and frayed loyalties,” AT&T said in its statement. “We are dedicated to helping our customers with new innovative ways to access this same content, including a new product called Local Channel Connector that puts local signals into program guides of our DirecTV customers with Genie receivers, or adding the new Locast app into all of our Genie and U-verse Internet-connected receivers so customers can stream their local stations. We continue to support Locast as it debuts in more cities, and the majority of homes affected by any potential CBS blackout will enjoy Locast capabilities. CBS also makes its shows available via the CBS All Access streaming service, typically with a free preview. Fans of stations affected by any CBS or Nexstar blackout can watch over the air, at the station websites, often at CBS.com or other network websites, and typically using the CBS and other Big Four network mobile apps.”

AT&T may be on the road to a third broadcaster blackout in the next few days, after CBS said in a statement that while it is working hard to reach a retransmission consent agreement with AT&T Uverse, DirecTV and DirecTV Now, the carrier “continues to propose unfair terms.”

AT&T’s deal with CBS expires at 11 p.m. (Pacific Time) on July 19 and would affect its owned and operated stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta, Tampa, Seattle, Detroit, Minneapolis, Miami, Denver, Sacramento, Pittsburgh and Baltimore. Three of those markets -- Atlanta, Seattle and Johnstown-Altoona, Pennsylvania are CW affiliates). Already the carrier is weathering blackouts with Nexstar Media Group and a group of about 17 stations in 14 markets. AT&T also sued Max Retrans, a consultant for several TV stations in retransmission negotiations, earlier this month for breaching non-disclosure agreements. 

CBS said it is “negotiating resolutely and in good faith with DirecTV, DirecTV Now and AT&T U-verse TV to reach a fair market value agreement for its programming,” and that it has reached hundreds of similar deals with cable, satellite and telco distributors. “AT&T, however, continues to propose unfair terms well below those agreed to by its competitors and may drop CBS unless we agree to those terms.”

Related: Saturday In the Park (Not) 

In a statement, AT&T said it was disappointed that CBS has decided to negotiate in public

“We’re disappointed to see CBS put our customers into the middle of negotiations,” AT&T said in a statement. “AT&T is on the side of customer choice and value and wants to keep the local CBS stations in 14 affected cities in our customers’ lineups. Our goal is always to deliver the content our customers want at a value that also makes sense to them. We continue to fight hard for that here and appreciate our customers’ patience while we work this out with CBS.” 

AT&T has sued Max Retrans, a consultant to TV stations in retransmission consent negotiations and headed by former Nexstar executive Duane Lammers in federal court in St. Louis, claiming the consultant has violated non-disclosure agreements and disclosed company trade secrets.

The suit, filed Wednesday in US District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, claims that Max Retrans signed an NDA with AT&T in 2016 pledging not to disclose any sensitive information it gleaned from the company when it represented the telco in some retrans deals.

Archives: 'Hammer Time' Profile of Duane Lammers from 2008

But, according to the lawsuit, Max Retrans used some of that information — particularly concerning rates AT&T paid similar stations in unrelated retrans agreements -- while it was representing independent stations in separate negotiations with the telco.

“In subsequent discussions with Lammers and, it has become clear that Max Retrans has breached, and without judicial intervention will continue to breach, the 2016 NDA,” AT&T said in its suit.

The name of the stations Lammers represented were redacted from the suit.

According to sources, Max Retrans is representing 20 stations that are currently locked in a retransmission consent dispute with AT&T. Those stations went dark to AT&T customers on May 31. 

Related: AT&T: Nexstar Pushes Retrans Meeting to Saturday 

AT&T is seeking compensatory damages, including lost subscriber revenue caused by Max Retrans’ breaches of contract and its misappropriation of AT&T’s trade secrets. 

“AT&T also seeks to recover retransmission consent fees related to any agreements AT&T may reach with station groups that have benefited from Max Retrans’ unlawful conduct, and further seeks punitive damages for Max Retrans’ willful and malicious unlawful conduct; attorneys’ fees; and declaratory and injunctive relief to prevent further unlawful disclosure of AT&T’s confidential information.”

AT&T and Nexstar Media Group officials are expected to meet on Friday July 12 at DirecTV headquarters in El Segundo, Calif., the first time they will meet face-to-face since the broadcaster’s 120 television stations went dark to DirecTV, DirecTV Now and Uverse customers on July 3.

Nexstar stations in 97 markets went dark at 11:59 p.m (Mountain Time) on July 3 after the parties reached a stalemate in their retransmission consent negotiations. Since then several federal legislators have chimed in on the dispute, urging AT&T to accept what Nexstar has called its offer of an unconditional extension that would keep the channels on the air as negotiations continued.

In a statement, AT&T disputed Nexstar’s characterization of the extension, claiming it was rife with conditions, the most pressing being that the distributor would have to agree to its rates being retroactively applied.

“We have spent the past week offering Nexstar new rates in multiple good faith proposals. Nexstar claims that it offered us an unconditional 30-day extension. That is not true. Nexstar’s extension was specifically conditioned on its rates being retroactively applied, with an expectation that we and our customers would pay its unprecedented proposed fee increase,” AT&T said in its statement.

AT&T hinted in its statement that Nexstar also is demanding that the deal cover properties it doesn't own yet -- namely the stations it will acquire as part of its $6.4 billion purchase of Tribune Media, adding that the broadcaster is issuing ultimatums “for local stations and a low-rated cable channel it does not own.” Nexstar agreed to purchase Tribune -- which owns 42 stations and cable channel WGN America -- in December. 

But like most retrans disputes, money is at the heart of the impasse. AT&T claims that that Nexstar is demanding a doubling of its current retrans rates -- the largest increase DirecTV has ever been presented in retrans talks, the company claims -- while its audience has dropped by about half.

“Under this cloud, Nexstar has slow-rolled any talks, made immaterial concessions against these unprecedented demands, and only offered to meet for the first time when it suited Nexstar leadership best – this Friday – or nine days after removing its stations,” AT&T said in the statement.

Whether the two will be able to hammer out a deal this Friday is anyone’s guess. Nexstar claims that over the past 20 months it has reached 390 retrans deals for its stations with cable operators. The broadcaster says it has continued to negotiate in good faith with AT&T and has offered it the same rates it has offered other large distributors. 

But even if AT&T were to accept the 30-day extension, it would end on Aug. 8, about three weeks before the start of the college football season on Aug. 31 and about a month before the NFL regular season starts, which would give the broadcaster even more leverage in a blackout if a deal wasn't reached during the extension period. 

The impasse also comes during the height of the hurricane season, and AT&T said today that it is launching a dedicated emergency weather information channel similar to ones it has launched in the past, enabling homes in the Gulf region of the country access to up to date emergency weather information. 

Fox executives told an audience of analysts at its Investor Day meeting Thursday what they had been waiting to hear for months -- with its focus on live news and sports, the newly broadcast-centric company will use that clout to extract higher retransmission consent fees from pay TV operators.

Fox shares rose nearly 5% ($1.83 each) in early trading Thursday, to $39.25 per share. The stock was trading at $38.48, up 2.8% ($1.06 each) at noon.

Fox, which after the sale of certain cable assets to the Walt Disney Co. in March left it with the Fox broadcast network, 28 owned and operated TV stations, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, and sports channels FS 1, FS 2 and Big Ten Network, is calling its newfound focus “The Power of Now.” Pay TV operators have long expected the company to use that clout to raise retrans rates. Thursday, Fox chief operating officer John Nallen confirmed their fears.

“We plan to meaningfully accelerate our growth of both direct retransmission and non-O&O revenue and we believe the broadcast economics we receive are quite underpriced relative to the quality of the content we are providing,” Nallen said at the Investor Day.

Just how much of an increase that will be wasn’t revealed. But analysts have predicted for months that their would be a meaningful acceleration in retrans fees, a combination of recent sports rights deals the company has struck and the fact that a large portion of its broadcast subscriber base will come up for renewal by 2022.

“[N]ew long-term sports rights deals locked up with the NFL (Thursday Night Football), MLB (an extension of the existing deal through 2028) and WWE (which kicks in in October, 2019) leave us optimistic in the company’s ability to drive meaningful retransmission fee step-ups as nearly all of the subscriber base is repriced over the coming three years," Evercore ISI media analyst Vijay Jayant wrote in a note to clients.

Retrans fees were up 29% in the fiscal third quarter at Fox, and that momentum is expected to continue. Cable network affiliate fees, up 4% in fiscal Q3, are expected to rise at a slower pace.

Fox had issued a warning that cable network affiliate fee revenue would slow in the second half of 2019, mainly because of tough comparisons to the prior year after big renewals for Fox News Channel with AT&T and with Comcast for Big Ten Network.

Nallen told the audience that with its new focus, Fox doesn’t have to spread its clout across other, less compelling channels.

“We are no longer lending the potency of our marketing brands toward any other initiative, brand or channel development,” Nallen said. “The purity of this sustained value opportunity from our Fox brands is critical as we’re not tethered to any properties that are just getting harder to defend. This frees us up to capture the full value of all our brands across broadcast and cable.”

Nallen added that the emergence of OTT providers as a major force in distribution -- he pointed to analysts estimates that digital distributors would have 16 million customers in the next three to four years -- could help drive cable affiliate fee increases.

“This will result in one of the digital distributors replacing a traditional player in our top four,” Nallen said of OTT subscriber growth. "And as volumes move, if a consumer wants a full bundle or a slimmed down version to accompany other services, that’s fine with us. We’re generally indifferent from a revenue standpoint between traditional and digital distributors.” 

About three days after its networks went dark, NBCUniversal Media said it has reached an agreement to return its channels to Liberty Puerto Rico customers immediately.

Telemundo, NBC Puerto Rico and 13 other channels went dark to Liberty Puerto Rico on April 5 after the parties could not reach a carriage agreement. Among the channels that went dark to Liberty Puerto Rico customers were CNBC, CNBC World, Bravo, E!, MSNBC, NBCSN, NBC Universo, Punto2, Oxygen, Universal Kids, SYFY, Golf Channel and USA .

“Today’s agreement really puts the customer first and brings back channels that they love,” said Liberty Latin America VP and chief programming officer Stephane David in a press release. “We are proud of our longstanding partnership with NBCUniversal and look forward to continuing to provide our customers with high-quality content from all of our partners.”

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“Liberty Cablevision is an important distribution partner and NBCUniversal is pleased to have reached a distribution agreement that will benefit customers in Puerto Rico,” said SVP NBCUniversal Content Distribution Matt Schnaars in a press release. “Telemundo in particular has a special bond with the people of Puerto Rico and we are pleased our quality entertainment, news and sports will be available to Liberty subscribers.”

With 2019 less than two weeks old the books are closed on the latest retrans-spat-to-end-all-retrans-spats -- Tribune Media’s eight-day blackout of 33 stations in 24 Charter Communications markets, shaking hands on a “comprehensive” agreement Jan. 11, that gives  Charter customers renewed access to Tribune stations and the second round of the National Football League playoffs. But I can’t help but think that both sides missed an opportunity to really make a difference.

While terms were not disclosed, it’s likely that Charter agreed to a fee increase, although not as high as Tribune had first suggested. And the 6 million or so cable company customers that were without the Tribune stations will get them back, probably a little more frustrated with their provider than usual. In time they will forget it, until the next retrans spat happens and they will have yet another reason to hate their cable company again.

Related: Retrans' Hobson's Choice

While I guess it’s good news that Charter and Tribune reached a deal, part of me wished that the impasse lasted longer. Because almost every year since I’ve been covering these things, someone has said this will be the year that a major operator will go to the mattresses on retrans, refusing to carry a station and break the cycle of double- and triple-digit rate increases and bring a modicum of sanity back to pay TV rates. And every year it doesn’t happen.

Some have come close. Most pundits still expect Dish Network and its maverick chairman Charlie Ergen to one day take the plunge with a Big 4 broadcaster -- it already has been without Spanish-language broadcaster Univision since June 30 and says it is likely the blackout is permanent -- but overall the idea has been mostly wishful thinking.  In the end, operator’s cave because there is a real economic impact.

It’s no coincidence that retrans deals usually expire around major events -- college and pro football playoffs, The Oscars, the World Series, the Super Bowl -- you get the gist.

Compelling programming, especially sports programming, gives fans an incentive to switch providers during a blackout. And operators remember what can happen when a fight lasts too long -- Time Warner Cable lost more than 300,000 customers in Q3 2013 after a one-month blackout of CBS stations in August of that year. While there were other factors, that exodus is what many pundits first led Charter to see an opportunity to take over the cable company. The rest is history and understandably, many companies are unwilling to take that risk.

Some disputes have lasted longer -- Charter was without Northwest Broadcasting stations for five months last year -- but they usually involve small station groups in equally small markets. For the most part, these scuffles usually get resolved fairly quickly, and the rhetoric that at first is breathless and full of over-hyped vitriol -- THE EVIL CABLE COMPANY IS PREVENTING YOU FROM WATCHING YOUR FAVORITE SHOWS and GREEDY BROADCASTERS ARE EMPTYING YOUR WALLETS are common retorts from both sides early in the process -- quickly becomes dull boilerplate when a deal is reached -- “We are pleased that we were able to reach an agreement.

In the meantime, retrans and sports continues to be a huge part of customers’ overall cable bills. Operators have tried to offset some of that cost by breaking out the fees in broadcast TV and RSN surcharges, but that doesn’t help the customer. According to industry website TV Answerman, Comcast alone will charge $16.50 per month this year just in broadcast and RSN fees. That’s nearly four times the $4.25 per month they charged in 2015.

What if they didn’t have to charge that anymore? How do think Comcast customers would react to a $20 per month reduction in their cable bill?

Look, I understand there is two sides to every story -- broadcasters have come to depend on retrans fees to offset declines in the ad market and they spend a lot of money on content. But estimates are that retrans fees will be around $10.8 billion in 2019, and it’s only going to get worse.

Related: Panel: Retrans Pie Will Grow

Nexstar, which expects to close its Tribune deal in the third quarter, has boasted it would get an extra $70 million in retrans fees just by putting those newly acquired stations on its rate card. And Evercore ISI media analyst Vijay Jayant said that stations that account for 55% to 60% of Nexstar’s total reach will be up for renewal in 2019-2020. Add to that the expected aggressiveness of New Fox once its deal with Disney closes in the first quarter and it could get really bad, really fast.

The TV business has a tendency to take a good idea and beat it out of existence, and unfortunately, in the case of retrans it is in danger of doing just that. Remember that the reason a lot of the so-called virtual Multichannel Video Programming Distributors came into existence was to counter the high cost of pay TV. If pay TV is no longer footing the bill -- getting out of the TV business altogether to concentrate on broadband, or encouraging customers to use antennas to get broadcast stations over the air -- it is unlikely that the streaming services will take up the mantle. Because if they do, they’ll just become traditional pay -TV companies using a different technology.

That leaves the ball in the content companies’ court, who will either have to reduce fees or find other sources to tap. But something has to be done and it has to be done soon. Because ignoring the problem won’t make it go away. 

Tegna said it has reached a multi-year carriage agreement with Verizon Communications, ending a blackout of three stations that began on Dec. 31. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Tegna stations in Washington, D.C. (WUSA-CBS), Norfolk, Va. (WVEC-ABC), and Buffalo, NY (WGRZ-NBC) went dark to Verizon Fios TV customers on Dec. 31 at 5 p.m. 

In a statement Tegna said the stations would return to the Verizon lineup "effective immediately."

Despite an extension that pushed the expiration of their retransmission consent deal to Jan. 2 at 5 p.m., Charter Communications and Tribune Media failed to reach a retransmission consent deal Wednesday.

About 33 Tribune stations in 24 Charter markets, including New York (WPIX) and Los Angeles (KTLA), went dark at 5 p.m. Wednesday. Tribune’s original retrans deal was set to expire at 12:01 a.m. Jan. 1, but the parties agreed to extend that deal to Jan. 2 at 5 p.m. while they continued to negotiate. The extra time, however, did not prove fruitful.

In a statement, Charter said it was “unfortunate” that it could not reach an agreement with Tribune, adding that the broadcaster is demanding an increase of more than double the rate it is currently paying for the same programming.

“That is more than we pay any other broadcaster,” Charter said in a statement. “They’re not being reasonable.”

According to Tribune, the blackout will affect about 6 million Charter customers across the country, and comes around the time of some major sporting events -- the NFL playoffs begin Saturday, Jan. 5 with the Wildcard Weekend, pitting the Indianapolis Colts against the Houston Texans at 4:35 p.m. on ESPN/ABC and the Seattle Seahawks vs. the Dallas Cowboys at 8:15 p.m. on Fox. The WGNA America cable channel also is off.

Charter has suggested customers can watch the NFL games for free on the NFL and Yahoo Sports mobile apps. Broadcast streaming app Locast also is available on Roku and online in Dallas, Denver, Houston and New York. Charter added that customers can find additional information at GetTheFactsaboutTribune.com and TribuneFairDeal.com.

“We’re extremely disappointed that we do not have an agreement on the renewal of our contract with Spectrum,” said Tribune Media’s senior vice president for corporate relations Gary Weitman in a statement. “The NFL playoffs are in jeopardy—beginning this weekend with critical games in some key markets like Indianapolis and Seattle. We don’t want Spectrum subscribers to miss these games.”

“We’ve offered Spectrum fair market rates for our top-rated local news, live sports and high-quality entertainment programming, and similarly fair rates for our cable network, WGN America,” Weitman continued. “Spectrum has refused our offer and failed to negotiate in a meaningful fashion.”

Just weeks after scrapping its merger with Sinclair Broadcast Group, Tribune Media said it landed carriage deals with three Multichannel Video Programming Distributors – Verizon Communications’ Fios TV, Atlantic Broadband and Google Fiber.

Related: Atlantic Broadband Completes Fiber Network Purchase

Tribune did not disclose the terms of the deals, but said collectively they encompass about 3.6 million customers in markets primarily located in the Northeast and Southeast regions of the country.

Tribune has about 42 owned and operated stations across the country that reach about 50 million homes and also includes cable network WGN America, websites and national multicast networks Antenna TV and THIS TV. In August it terminated its $3.9 billion merger with Sinclair, after federal regulators moved to hold hearings to further look into the transaction, a signal that its chances of being approved were diminishing.  Tribune subsequently sued Sinclair for $1 billion for breach of contract. Sinclair counter-sued shortly after.  

Cable operators could have a fight on their hands as the FCC prepares to rethink its leased-access rules.

Low-power TV stations have said that will be one of their battlefronts to try to get more respect for their signals — and more carriage from multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs). The other front is the must-carry/retransmission-consent regime from which lowpower TV outlets are excluded.

“There is case upon case of the cable MVPD denying must-carry claims, and then attempting to force leased-access contracts,” LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition executive director Mike Gravino told The Wire.

MVPDs are under no obligation to carry LPTVs. But Gravino’s beef goes beyond that. He also called it discrimination that MVPDs offer zero-cost leased-access contracts to networks they want to air, but not to local LPTVs. Look for the coalition to pull out the “gatekeeper” epithet MVPDs have been saddled with by backers of tough net-neutrality rules.

“The MVPD uses public rights of way, and Congress gave them special powers over local content,” Gravino said.

Not looking to engage in an LPTV war, of words or otherwise, NCTA–The Internet & Television Association said: “We commend the FCC for moving to re-examine some of its leased-access rules. The rule changes adopted by the FCC in 2008 have never taken effect, having been both stayed by the courts and disapproved of by OMB. Meanwhile, the video marketplace of competitive multichannel video programming distributors and online video is vastly different from what existed a decade ago, much less from when Congress adopted the leased-access requirements.”

Cable One said its customers are in danger of losing access to stations owned by Northwest Broadcasting and Hearst Television in its service territory on Dec. 31 if it cannot negotiate successful retransmission consent agreements.

About four stations owned by Northwest Broadcasting in Grenada and Cleveland, Miss. -- WABG (ABC), WABG2 (FOX), WNBD (NBC), and WXVT (CBS) – are scheduled to go dark on Dec. 31 if a deal isn’t reached before the deadline. Cable One claims Northwest is demanding a nearly 100% increase from in rates compared to its previous contract, a higher fee than the cable operator pays any broadcaster in its 40-plus markets. 

“It’s our goal to come to a fair agreement with Northwest Broadcasting by the contract expiration date in order to avoid disruption to our customers,” said Cable One vice president John Gosch in a statement.  “Unfortunately, Northwest currently has a stranglehold on all major network broadcast stations in both Cleveland and Grenada.  This reality makes negotiating with Northwest for a fair deal very difficult and does not lend itself to a positive outcome for our customers.”

According to reports, Northwest says it is making every effort to negotiate a deal with Cable One, pointing to past agreements it has reached with other distributors.

Hearst Television operates in about 16 Cable One markets -- Norfolk, West Point, and South Sioux City, Neb.; Altus, Ponca City, Elk City, Sulphur, and Davis, Okla.; Rio Rancho and Roswell, N.M.; Anniston, Ala.; Diamondhead, Brookhaven, Natchez, McComb, and Yazoo City, Miss. According to Hearst, those areas are covered by six Hearst stations -- Oklahoma City's KOCO-TV (ABC), WVTM-TV (NBC) in Birmingham, Ala.; KOAT-TV (ABC) in Albuquerque; WDSU-TV (NBC) in New Orleans; KETV (ABC) in Omaha; and WAPT-TV (ABC) in Jackson, Miss. Those stations could go dark if a deal is not reached Dec. 31.

“It’s our goal to come to a fair agreement with Hearst by the contract expiration date in order to avoid disruption to our customers,” said Cable One vice president Mitch Bland in a statement.  “Negotiations have been very slow and resolving this negotiation by the deadline at this point appears very unlikely, unfortunately increasing the real chance of disruption to our customers. We will continue to reach out to Hearst with offers that are more than fair in hopes of reaching an equitable agreement for our customers by the deadline.”

Bland said that Hearst Television, too is asking for a rate increase of more than 100% - more than double their previous contract with Cable One.

“Hearst has a long history of successfully concluding carriage agreements with cable companies and other satellite distributors with no disruption of service to subscribers,” Hearst said in a statement on its WBAL TV website Tuesday night.

The broadcaster also is currently in negotiations with DirecTV concerning retransmission consent for its stations in about 28 markets. DirecTV also faces a Dec. 31 deadline for about 14 television stations and one cable channel owned by Cox Media in markets like Atlanta (WSB-TV); Seattle (KIRO-TV); Dayton, Ohio (WHIO-TV); Memphis, Tenn. (WHBQ); Tulsa, Okla. (KOKI-TV); and Jacksonville, Fla. (WFOX-TV).

In a statement on its WFOX-TV website Cox Media said that DirecTV “refuses to recognize the value of our programming,” and has declined to carry its multicast channels (Get TV and Decades) even at no charge.

Bland said in his statement that while Hearst may be more focused on its larger DirecTV negotiations, it hopes that "Cable One customers don’t suffer as result of living in smaller, more rural markets that aren’t as impactful to Hearst’s bottom line.”