DirecTV, smarting from what it called an "out of the blue" campaign by Northwest Broadcasting to alert customers that they would lose access to its programming if a retransmission-consent deal wasn't reached by July 1, instead received yet another extension in what has become an 18-month drama for the satellite giant.
Shortly after Northwest began its campaign on June 27, the broadcaster agreed to extend its existing contract with DirecTV until July 31, said DirecTV spokesman Robert Mercer.
DirecTV has been on a rolling contract extension with Northwest since January 2011. On its web site, DirecTV claims that Northwest has been demanding rates that are double its previous charges.
"We are willing to compensate Northwest fairly, but we will not allow them (or any other station operator) to try to extract unreasonable increases at our customers' expense," DirecTV said on the site,.
Northwest owns stations WICZ (Fox) and WBPA (My Network TV) in Binghamton, N.Y.; KMVU (Fox) in Medford and Klamath Falls, Ore.; KAYU (Fox) in Spokane, Wash.; KFFX (Fox) in Yakima, Wash.; and KVTV (CBS) in Laredo, Texas.
