KFVE Honolulu was off DirecTV as of 6 p.m. local time Thursday (Oct. 19) after the two were unable to strike a new retransmission consent deal.
That comes after four extensions were granted by the station.
"“We continue to attempt to negotiate with DIRECTV and we are hopeful that a deal will be reached to return K5 The HomeTeam to our loyal DIRECTV viewers,” said KFVE GM John Fink. “We have granted DIRECTV four extensions along the way over the past seven weeks in our quest to get this issue fairly resolved and have not had any response to our requests to negotiate.”
If the agreement runs out, DirecTV has to take the signal down, though both parties are required to negotiate in good faith to reach a new agreement.
Fink Told B&C there had been no response from DirecTV as of midday ET Friday (Oct. 20), calling it a case of David & Goliath, "as they have indicated no interest in any form of retrans negotiations after being a willing partner for 12 years!"
In a notice on its home page about the negotiations, KFVE tells viewers they should contact DirecTV. The stations also points out that they can get the signal over the air, on another provider or online.
"We are a single local station attempting to negotiate against a powerful international company," the station told viewers. "This is a trend with DIRECTV in its negotiations with single stations or small station groups. They ignore their value to their local communities and work to avoid fairly compensating them for the programming they offer."
The site also references other impasses, including a B&C story about Dispatch stations being taken off DirecTV in September. Those stations were back on this week after a new, three-year, deal was struck.
KFVE is owned by by HIT License Subsidiary, but has a shared services agreement with Raycom stations KHNL and KGMB. (The story initially said KFVE was a Raycom station)
In late September, Raycom struck a retrans deal with DirecTV covering 54 of the 65 TV stations it owns or programs.
"During the past week our viewers, political leaders, and community groups have spoken out about how important Univision’s networks and stations are for providing information and news to the Hispanic community, especially in light of recent natural disasters," said Univision in a statement. "We share their disappointment that Univision’s networks and stations are not available on Verizon. While Verizon unilaterally and without notice removed us from its systems on Monday evening after rejecting our proposal and extension offer, we remain committed to negotiations. We stand ready to review any fair proposal from Verizon that doesn’t devalue Spanish language programming and dismiss the needs of its audience."
