Sinclair Stations Remain on AT&T MVPDs

Sinclair stations remained on AT&T's U-Verse and DirecTV distribution platforms past the 5 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27, deadline. 

A source said Sinclair, which ultimately controls the signals, had provided the extension. It was not clear for how long.  

Sinclair has been warning its viewers (136 stations in 86 markets) in on-air crawls that their stations could be off AT&T-owned MVPDs DirecTV and U-Verse by Sept. 27. But those warnings were absent from several of the stations that had been running them on their Web sites as recently as late Friday night.  

Some House Members have asked the two sides to get a deal done for the sake of Sinclair/AT&T viewers and their constituents. 

Elsewhere, Fox sports commentators on the Texas Tech/Oklahoma game Saturday told viewers to complain to Dish, and not them, about the fact that Fox stations and networks had gone dark on Dish saying the issue was "above their pay grades." 

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.