Tegna stations, including many CBS and NBC affiliates, remain in the dark in the cart dispute over DirecTV

Dozens of Tegna-owned local television stations, most of which are NBC and CBS affiliates, have disappeared from DirecTV’s radar because of a cart dispute.

The companies were unable to reach an agreement before Thursday’s 5pm PT deadline. The outage will immediately affect approximately 5 million customers in US markets

DirecTV was spun off from AT&T in 2021 into a private company, 30% owned by private equity firm TPG. According to recent analyst estimates, DirecTV’s traditional satellite business, along with its Internet-delivered DirecTV Stream and U-Verse cable systems, have a combined total of nearly 12 million subscribers in the United States.

The fight against Tegna affects about 40% of that base, sources told Deadline, with 70% of the affected stations affiliated with CBS or NBC. Tegna owns 66 stations in 52 markets, including top DMAs such as Dallas, Phoenix and Denver.

DirecTV CEO Rob Thun criticized the attitude of Tegna and other programmers in today’s market. “We won’t do it based on volume, but based on price,” he said in an interview with Deadline, in which he characterized the programmers’ approach to negotiations, with demands for transportation costs increasing “suddenly.” in the last renovations. Cycles. “If that’s the mentality, you’re going to drive more people away because price is what’s driving everyone out of pay TV.”

In a statement tonight, Tegna said: “Despite months of efforts, DirecTV has refused to reach a fair, market-based agreement with Tegna.” As a result, DirecTV and AT&T U-Verse customers will lose access to NFL championship games and college football conferences as well as some of the most popular national network shows and top local news. We call on DirecTV to continue to negotiate with us until an agreement is reached that makes our channels available to their customers again.”

Soccer is a key program element that will be impacted in the short term. Top-ranked Georgia will face Alabama in the SEC Championship Saturday afternoon on CBS. Other big rivalries are also scheduled, including the Army-Navy game on CBS on Dec. 9. Soccer on Sunday nights comes on the home stretch of the regular season.

Political coverage and large advertising campaigns are also at stake. DirecTV recently had a 77-day standoff with Nexstar Media Group, another top local station owner. A fight of this length with Tegna would keep Iowa broadcasters in the dark on January 15, while fifteen other states would hold primaries on Super Tuesday in early March.

However, in contrast to previous distribution issues, most Tegna channels are now offered on direct-to-consumer streaming services such as Peacock and Paramount+. Thun said DirecTV is more of a “pure-play” pay-TV company than Charter, Comcast and other cable operators that also sell broadband services. That makes an approach like Charter’s in its battle with Disney in September less viable. Still, Thun said the company will likely start telling its customers that they can access the channel’s programming via streaming. Likewise, the company has equipped major out-of-home customers like Buffalo Wild Wings with antennas that allow them to receive local stations’ signals over the air for free if the power outage persists.

Tegna began negotiations after a major backlash in the business community. The company agreed to be acquired by private equity firm Standard General in a deal valued at $8.6 billion (including debt), but federal regulators raised several concerns and effectively stalled the deal.