DirecTV and Tegna Queue Up Another Blackout Do-Si-Do

Daniel Frankel
·2 min read
Square dancers.
Square dancers.

Tegna is back on the rocks with DirecTV, signaling to viewers Saturday that its stations could soon be pulled off the programming grids of the pay TV operator's platforms amid failing broadcast retransmission licensing negotiations.

The broadcaster, which owns 64 network affiliates in 14 markets, told viewers with DirecTV satellite, DirecTV Stream and U-verse TV subscriptions that they could "lose" Tegna stations starting November 30 without DirecTV agreeing to “fair, market-based” terms on broadcast retransmission licensing.

“Thus far, DirecTV has refused to agree to such terms, which is why we have begun informing DirecTV and AT&T U-Verse customers that they may lose access to their local Tegna station and our valuable programming,” Tegna said in a statement released to Next TV Saturday afternoon. “We hope that DirecTV is willing to negotiate a market-based deal before the November 30 deadline and doesn’t take away DirecTV and AT&T U-Verse customers’ local news, weather, sports and network programs.”

DirecTV sees it differently.

“Tegna has once again made a private negotiation public in the hopes of creating unnecessary and premature concern among some of our customers to extract higher rates for local broadcast stations,” the operator said in its own Saturday statement. “Unfortunately, that’s become the industry norm as the costs for free local stations have soared more than 20% year upon year upon year despite declining popularity and less compelling content. We will continue to meet our customers’ demands for greater choice and value and do our utmost to shield them from unwarranted price hikes as we work with Tegna to renew its stations without any interruption.”

Certainly factoring in negotiations: 21 of Tegna stations are NBC affiliates that are accessible via Peacock, while 16 Tegna outlets are CBS stations that are delivered via Paramount Plus.

The two companies also threw down three years ago under similar circumstances. That dispute, which occurred before AT&T spun DirecTV off, lasted about three weeks.