The latest in a spate of retransmission consent battles, DirecTV Thursday blacked out News-Press & Gazette stations—and Cox could do the same to seven Tegna stations Friday night.
The disputes over fees agreements are playing out online, where the station groups are appealing to viewers by offering their sides of the stories.
“We’re dealing with a company that has a history of behaving badly,” News-Press & Gazette, which owns 18 stations, wrote on its website. “We’re sorry you’re caught in the middle.”
The Tegna stations that Cox could drop, which cover six markets, also took to the web, posting notice on their websites, including the one run by CBS affiliate WUSA Washington.
“Unfortunately, so far Cox has refused to reach a fair, market-based agreement with us—even though the terms being offered are similar to those which allowed us to reach hundreds of deals with these other providers,” it said. “If a deal is not reached by 11:59 pm EST January 13, Cox subscribers could lose access to WUSA.”
The Cox news was first reported by the website TVPredictions.
