DirecTV Loses Nexstar Stations

DirecTV lost some 159 Nexstar stations in 113 markets around 7pm ET Sunday with the two unable to come to terms on a new retransmission consent agreement. NewsNation is also dark on the MVPD.

Nexstar said DirecTV rejected its offer to extend the current distribution agreement to Oct. 31 and said it has been trying to reach a renewal since May, offering the same rates it has to other MVPDs. DirecTV claims the broadcaster wants it to pay more than double the previous fees for the same content and said this is the largest local TV outage ever.

“Nexstar has a long track record of forcing programming outages in an effort to unnecessarily raise prices for everyone at the expense of the communities they are licensed and entrusted to serve,” Rob Thun, chief content officer of DirecTV, said in a statement. “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.”

Nexstar said it remains hopeful that a resolution can be reached quickly and is encouraging viewers affected by the blackout to call DirecTV.  “Following DirecTV’s actions, subscribers in 113 Nexstar markets including Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Denver, have lost access to thousands of hours of vitally important local news, just as the summer storm season is raging,” the broadcaster said in a statement. “In addition, as a result of DirecTV’s actions, subscribers will not be able to view Women’s World Cup Soccer, British Open golf, LIV Golf, MLB’s All-Star Game, and all of the entertainment programming provided by Nexstar’s network partners, CBS, FOX, NBC, ABC, The CW and MyNet.  If the interruption in service continues for a protracted period of time, DirecTV subscribers are at risk of losing access to pre-season NFL Football, and perhaps the opening games of the 2023-24 football season.”