A heated dispute has erupted between Nexstar Media Group and DirecTV, leaving over 150 local TV stations in the dark. Both companies failed to reach a new agreement, leaving subscribers without access to popular local stations like New York City’s WPIX and Los Angeles’ KTLA. This disruption affects DirecTV, Uverse, and DirecTV Stream subscribers.
Nexstar expressed disappointment, stating, “DirecTV and Nexstar were unable to reach a new distribution agreement allowing DirecTV to continue airing the highly-rated programming on Nexstar’s local stations. In addition, DirecTV rejected Nexstar’s offer to extend the current distribution agreement to Oct. 31, 2023.” Nexstar has been negotiating diligently and in good faith since May, offering fair market rates similar to those agreed upon with other distribution partners in the past year. The company has a history of successfully reaching agreements with over 500 distribution partners.
Unfortunately, this carriage dispute also affects access to NewsNation, which has also gone dark. DirecTV responded to the blackout, accusing Nexstar of intentionally causing programming outages to drive up prices. Rob Thun, chief content officer of DirecTV, stated, “We will continue to work with Nexstar to reach an agreement and will take all necessary actions to provide our customers access to their favorite programming while protecting them from unwarranted price increases.”
