WASHINGTON—Cincinnati Bell has filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission asking the agency to review its decision to deny a petition by the telco, which does business under the brand altafiber, that claimed Nexstar violated “good faith” negotiating rules during a retransmission consent dispute involving Nexstar’s WDTN Dayton, Ohio station.

"Grounds for Commission review exist because the Bureau made determinations in conflict with existing Commission precedent, made erroneous findings with respect to material facts and created a material new policy that had not previously been resolved by the Commission,” the application said.

The original complaint referred to a 2025 retransmission consent and carriage dispute between Nexstar and altafiber that led the telco to drop both WDTN and Nexstar’s cable news channel NewsNation.

In an application that laid out a number of arguments supporting the complaint, the telco argued that the FCC’s decision to reject the complaint because it involved a “commonplace” dispute over rates was wrong. It also contended that Nexstar’s demands were “sufficiently outrageous,” for the agency to rule against Nexstar.

“As set forth in the record, Nexstar’s demand was anything but `commonplace,’ unless the Bureau considers imposing an incremental cost of more than $50 per Dayton subscriber `commonplace,’” the telco argued. “That cost is in addition to any retransmission consent fee and arises from delivery of Nexstar’s unpopular news channel, NewsNation, to subscribers outside the Dayton DMA. The cost is so high because 99% of altafiber’s subscribers are in the Cincinnati DMA where Nexstar owns no broadcast stations. Evaluating whether the demands of broadcasters are consistent with competitive marketplace considerations must necessarily be made in the market for which retransmission consent is being negotiated. Thus, these costs must be measured relative to the 1% of altafiber’s subscribers who would be able to receive the Dayton station. The Bureau had a duty to consider altafiber’s rebuttal evidence.”

“The Bureau also created a new policy, declaring that a broadcaster’s economic self-interest may take precedent over its duty to serve the public interest,” the application stated. “Even more significantly, it declared that the Commission lacked authority to enforce the public interest obligation in the context of retransmission consent negotiations, instead effectively delegating to altafiber the obligation to enforce Nexstar’s public interest obligations through the negotiating process.”

“The Bureau’s decision creates a dangerous and clear precedent that all broadcaster demands are presumptively consistent with competitive marketplace considerations, therefore no limits apply to the scale and scope of those demands,” the telco concluded. “Even if the demands violate the broadcaster’s public interest obligations, in light of the Bureau’s policy declaration, the Commission is now powerless to enforce those obligations. The Bureau’s decision permits broadcasters to withhold their signals until their demands are met without fear of any enforcement action. Whether the signal remains blacked out or the MVPD capitulates and access becomes unaffordable, foreclosed access harms many consumers who rely on MVPDs to receive local broadcast television.”

The application asked that the FCC “Remand Count I of the Complaint to the Bureau with instructions that: (i) Nexstar’s demand for carriage of an affiliated cable programming service outside of the DMA for which fully retransmission consent is sought is not presumptively consistent with competitive marketplace considerations; and (ii) Nexstar had the burden to establish that its demands were consistent with competitive marketplace considerations.”

It also asked the Commission to “Review and rescind the Bureau’s policy determination that: (i) a broadcaster can subordinate its obligation to serve the public interest to pursuit of `advanc[ing] its own economic self-interest when negotiating retransmission consent' and if it does, the Commission lacks authority to enforce the public interest obligations.”

The full application can be found here.

WASHINGTON—In a wide-ranging press conference, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr had both good and bad news for broadcasters, stressing that he wants to “empower local broadcasters” while issuing stern warnings that the agency would vigorously enforce the public-interest standard when it comes to news coverage.

During the conference, Carr also issued strong criticism of broadcast network news operations; said he was "particularly interested" in the FCC’s ongoing investigation of The Walt Disney Co.’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices; insisted there was no relationship between President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against CBS and the FCC review of the Paramount-Skydance deal; said the agency would consider removing broadcast licenses for violations of the public-interest standard; contended that the agency’s past unwillingness to enforce the public-interest standard was wrong; laid out some of his upcoming priorities; and said recent court rulings would not hamstring the FCC’s enforcement efforts.

After strongly criticizing network broadcast news operations for having lost the trust of the American people, Carr said: "One of the big things I'm trying to do with my media policy is to empower those local broadcasters to serve the needs of their local communities. Localism is one of the key [things guiding the FCC’s] … media policy … I think it's important to separate in people’s minds the difference between national programmers and the local broadcasters. Let's empower those local broadcasters …There's potentially lots of things that we can do to make sure that they feel like they have the freedom to serve the needs of their local communities.”

One area he highlighted was affiliation agreements. “I wrote a letter, actually, the end of last year to ABC on that to look at ways in which affiliation agreements potentially are being used to exercise potentially too much control over local broadcasters,“ he said. “We want to make sure that these arrangements between national programmers, ABC, NBC, CBS and local broadcasters enable a healthy TV broadcast media ecosystem. We don't want local broadcasters to ultimately go the way of newspapers, and when you look at the current dynamic, I'm not sure it's entirely healthy. So I want strong local broadcasters that feel empowered to serve their local communities. I think if you look at a lot of what we’re doing on media, it can be explained by trying to drive towards that goal.”

Carr also argued that the agency intends to “vigorously” enforce the public interest standard on broadcast news content.

“Broadcasters have a very unique position in the market when it comes to other entities,” he said. “They are licensed by the FCC. When you license someone to operate, you're necessarily prohibiting others from using those airways. Because of that, they have a public-interest obligation. And I think over the years, the FCC has largely stepped back from enforcing the public interest standard … I don’t think that's correct. I think given the unique benefits that come from a federal broadcast license, it's important for the FCC to actually hold these entities accountable to the public interest. And there’s a lot of rules and regulations that flow from that news distortion is a piece of it, and I believe that the FCC should be vigorously enforcing the public interest.”

“The agenda that we're driving at,” he added, “the North Star is, we want these local broadcasters to feel empowered to actually serve the interests of their local communities and not simply become a pass-through for, you know, nationwide content coming principally from Hollywood and New York. We want localism. I think that's important, that we empower our local broadcasters to do that.”

During the conference, Carr denied there was any coordination between the FCC in its investigations of CBS’s “60 Minutes” and CBS stations for news distortion and Trump, who has filed a lawsuit seeking damages totaling $20 billion from Paramount Global, the owner of CBS.

In response to a question about the Trump lawsuit, the status of the FCC review of the Paramount-Skydance merger and its investigation into “60 Minutes,” Carr said the FCC was not part of the Trump litigation and “there's been no discussions” with the White House about it.

In terms of the Paramount deal, he said: “We are getting close to the informal 180-day clock. I think we're somewhere in the 160s but, you know, we're just running our normal process across a lot of different transactions right now, and we're just going to apply the law.”

Carr also argued that the recent decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a $57 million fine imposed by the Federal Communications Commission against AT&T for violating the privacy of its customers’ location data would not limit the agency’s enforcement efforts.

The case is notable in that the Court justified its decision in part by citing SEC v. Jarkesy, a 2023 Supreme Court decision. That case severely restricts regulatory agencies from levying civil monetary fines through the administrative process. Some legal experts said that ruling, which was cited by the 5th Circuit, could call “into question whether any federal regulatory agency…can bring in-house proceedings to enforce civil penalties.”

“We've already submitted filings in those other circuits…expressing our view that we disagree with the Fifth Circuit,” Carr said. “So our position continues to be that the FCC can impose fines, impose license revocations, or full suite of potential remedies as to broadcasters and others, notwithstanding the Fifth Circuit decision…in part because the FCC has a mechanism in our statute where people can get a trial after the FCC administrative proceedings…We disagree ultimately with the conclusion there, particularly as it applies to other circuits.”

When asked if the FCC would consider revoking broadcast licenses as a result of its investigations into news content that violated the public interest standard, Carr admitted that would be a severe punishment, “a death sentence,” he said.

“Well, [I] don't get sort of too far down the speculation path, but ultimately, you know, license revocations is a tool that the FCC has in its toolkit,” Carr said. “It’s long been viewed as sort of the regulatory death penalty. So it’s a pretty high bar to me to go down that path, but it is, you know, one of the options the FCC has. And we’re, you know, continuing to take a vigorous look at the public-interest standard and making sure that the FCC enforces it. We’ve opened lots of investigations so far. We’re going to see where they go. We've looked at Disney and ABC, in particular, for some of their DEI practices. There’s some concerning things we've seen there about potential discrimination that we are continuing to run down inside the building, and we'll see where that investigation on Disney and ABC goes … There’s some concerning elements there about potentially making race-based and gender-based discriminatory decisions. And we still have to let that play out in terms of the process, but that’s one where I’m particularly interested to see where it goes.”

NEW YORK—In a new report explaining its decision to downgrade debt ratings for several broadcast groups in 2024, S&P Global Ratings predicts modest declines in retransmission consent and core advertising revenue for TV stations in upcoming years. That ongoing trend is likely to make stations increasingly reliant on political advertising and could make it more costly for groups to refinance their debts, per the credit agency.

“We believe the industry will become increasingly reliant on political advertising revenue in even years,” Rose Oberman, Media & Entertainment director, S&P Global Ratings, wrote in the report. “At the same time, many local TV broadcasters face refinancing upcoming debt maturities at higher interest rates in 2026 and beyond. As a result, we expect EBITDA will gradually decline and cash flow will weaken.”

The report also noted that S&P Global Ratings so far this year had downgraded some debt from several broadcasters, including Cox Media Group, Gray Media, Sinclair and E.W. Scripps.

“Of the six local TV broadcasters we rate, two have stable outlooks (Nexstar and Tegna) reflecting stronger leverage and cash flow profiles, which we believe will support debt reduction and refinancing efforts,” Oberman noted. “The remaining four have negative outlooks (Sinclair, Gray, E.W. Scripps, and CMG). These companies currently have elevated leverage and could potentially face refinancing risk if they do not use their excess cash balance and expected free operating cash flow (FOCF) toward debt repayment.”

Oberman also argued that “the industry's concentration of debt maturities beginning in 2026 increases refinancing risk given the potential for waning lender demand leading to a shortfall in willing lenders to the sector.”

Oberman stressed, though, “we don't currently envision making additional material revisions to our estimated company enterprise values” unless retransmission fees and core ad revenues decline at a faster-than-projected rate.

After a period of strong growth, BIA Advisory Services is predicting that cord cutting and the shift towards streaming will produce a “flattening” in retransmission fees between 2024 and 2028. That marks and important change from recent years, where BIA estimates that local TV stations generated $12.3 billion in distribution revenue from MVPDs and vMVPDs in 2020, and this rose 22.5 percent to $15.1 billion by 2023. 

A blog post by BIA's Rick Ducey noted that “as shown below, NBC affiliated stations saw the largest increase in distribution revenue in this period, followed by CBS, FOX, and ABC.  Broadcasters often negotiate both financial and non-financial terms such as including carriage of diginets.”

“Looking ahead beyond 2023, the local TV industry has come to rely on these distribution revenues but the dynamics are in flux,” Ducey noted. “In a world with growing segments of homes that are cord-cutters and cord nevers with a transition to CTV/OTT streaming video services, the economics of retransmission consent are changing as MVPDs see video subscriber losses along with the associated revenues from which distribution fees can be paid. MVPDs themselves are making adjustments by moving towards offering their own streaming services served to their growing ranks of broadband customers versus their traditional cable households.”

The BIA did not provide specific dollar figures for its 2024-2028 retrans fee estimates but noted that “BIA’s latest forecast for local TV station vMVPD/MVPD distribution revenue shows growth from 2023 but an overall flattening in the 2024-2028 period. Of the total amount of distribution revenue in the 2020-2028 period, the Top 25 TV Markets account for over half of the local TV station revenue from multichannel video providers. The Top 10 markets generate 29.9 percent of the total and Markets 11-25 get 21.6 percent.”

In the wake of DirecTV’s recent announcement that subscribers to its pay TV services could choose less expensive programming packages without local broadcast stations, Dish has responded by reminding consumers that it has offered this option for the last seven years. 

“In light of recent news regarding DirecTV's introduction of its new opt-out feature for local channels, it's important to highlight that Dish has been offering this capability to customers for the last seven years,” Dish said. “Dish firmly believes in empowering its subscribers with the ability to customize their viewing experience according to their preferences.”

Both companies have been involved with extensive retransmission disputes with local broadcast station groups in recent years. While cord-cutting has hurt the entire pay-TV industry, satellite operators like Dish and DirecTV have been particularly impacted because they can’t effectively bundle high-speed broadband services with their video packages the way cable and telco operators do.   

The Leichtman Research Group (LRG) estimates that DirecTV lost 1.8 million subs in 2023 while public financial statements filed by Dish indicate it lost 945,000. 

Dish ended 2023 with 6,471,000 satellite subs, down from a peak of 14.1 million satellite subs in 2010. 

In 2023, Dish and DirecTV accounted for more than half (2.75 million) of the 5 million subs lost by major pay TV operations, LRG reported. 

ATLANTA—Cox Media Group (CMG) has announced that DirecTV removed all Cox Media Group (CMG) TV stations from its lineups after the two parties were unable to reach a new retransmission consent agreement. The old one expired on Feb. 2. 

Cox said DirecTV had refused its offer to extend negotiations. 

In recent weeks the two parties had been highlighting a growing possibility that the stations would be blacked out and blaming each other for the impasse. 

DirecTV said Cox Media Group (CMG) pulled its 12 stations from DirecTV, DirecTV Stream, and U-verse customers in 9 metro areas after rejecting the latest extension offer on the table while both sides continue to work to reach a new agreement.

“While we’ve been signing dozens of fair-market carriage deals that bring our high-quality programming to more than 50 million viewers, DirecTV has been dropping hundreds of TV stations and depriving its customers of the local content they want and paid DirecTV for,” said Marian Pittman, executive vice president of CMG. “Now DirecTV is at it again. We call on DirecTV to stop holding viewers hostage to its anti-consumer agenda.” 

“CMG is proud of our commitment to investing in high-quality local news and investigative journalism,” Pittman continued. DirecTV’s actions threaten those investments and hurt consumers who rely on us for local news, weather, and a robust slate of sports and other popular entertainment programming. Dropping CMG stations and blocking viewers from accessing local news and programming is DirecTV’s latest bullying tactic to try to harm local journalism.”

“We remain committed to negotiating in good faith to secure a fair carriage agreement with DirecTV, just as we’ve done with dozens of other TV providers that continue to deliver our award-winning stations to their customers,” Pittman added. 

In a statement on its website, DirecTV said that: "[t]his is an unfortunate and all too familiar path for CMG, which pulled its signals from DirecTV in its last renewal in 2021, agreeing to restore its stations just hours before the 2021 Super Bowl. CMG has also been down on Dish since November 2022, as well as threatened or pulled its signals from Comcast (Jan. 2020), Dish (March-April 2016 and Jan. 2020) DirecTV (Jan. 2017 and Jan.-Feb. 2021) Frontier (Jan. 2018), FuboTV (Feb. 2023), Suddenlink (Jan. 2021) and others."

"CMG is playing chicken with the industry, willfully ignoring the economics that its programming does not warrant a double-digit annual rate increase on top of an already exorbitant fee structure," the statement continued. "By pulling its stations, CMG intends to penalize its viewers twice – once when pulling the programming and again when they return it at an unwarranted higher rate – adding insult to injury. This is another clear example that underscores the need for a new path forward to combat rising retransmission rates, which have increased 270% since 2015 as detailed in the proposal from DIRECTV."

"DirecTV is committed to working towards a new agreement that will align the value and quality customers receive with the price they pay," the statement concluded. 

DirecTV and Tegna have announced that they have reached a new long term distribution agreement, ending a blackout that lasted six weeks. 

The new multiyear distribution agreement covering Tegna’s 64 owned stations in 51 DMAS returned to DirecTV, DirecTV Stream and U-Verse on Saturday, Jan. 13, just in time for the NFL Playoffs. 

Tegna stations were pulled from DirecTV Nov. 30 after the two sides failed to reach an agreement on a new retrans agreement.

“DirecTV and Tegna greatly appreciate the patience of their subscribers and viewers,” the two said in a joint statement.

Financial terms were not made public. 

WASHINGTON, D.C.—During a November 30  House Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology subcommittee hearing, FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel indicated that Congressional action may be needed to give the FCC authority to regulate streaming and reclassify vMVPDs so they are subject to the same rules as traditional pay TV cable and satellite operators. 

Given the difficulties in getting anything passed through the current highly polarized Congress, those comments are a potential setback for the NAB and station groups who have been pushing the FCC to reclassify vMVPDs like Sling TV, YouTube TV and Fubo TV. 

The reclassification would allow station groups to directly negotiate retransmission deals with vMVPDs, a change from the current system of having the owners of the major broadcast networks handle those deals. This, they argue, would boost retransmission fees and provide stations with more money for local news. 

The networks and vMVPDs under the banner of Preserve Viewer Choice Coalition have opposed the change, saying it would stifle innovation and that there is little evidence that new rules would produce more money for local news. 

During the subcommittee hearing on FCC oversight, Representative and Ranking Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA5), argued that that only Congress has the ability to regulate streaming in her opening remarks, “We recently sent a letter to chair Rosenworcel, cautioning against refreshing the record to apply outdated, decades old regulations to an evolving media marketplace. Since I haven’t received a response, I will reiterate my concern and firm view that changes to laws that govern the media marketplace need to be done by Congress, not by the FCC.”

Later in the hearing McMorris Rodgers followed up and directly asked Jessica Rosenworcel about the issue. “Earlier this year, chairman Latta and I sent you a letter urging you not to reopen the 2014 proceedings on vMVPDs. At the last oversight hearing you stated and I quote, ‘the Commission’s authority extends only to what Congress provided in the 1984 Cable Act and the 1992 Cable Act…’ Because you acknowledged that the FCC does not have the legal authority to regulate vMVPDs, do you commit to not taking any action on this issue?”

In response, Rosenworcel said “I think that our duties and authority in this area are constrained by the 1984 Cable Act and the 1992 Cable Act… That’s why I think the request to incorporate virtual service providers is complex, doesn’t fit neatly in the law. We are combing over the record and trying to understand adjacent copyright issues to figure out a way forward, but I think fundamentally this is an issue where those who want us to act are going to have to come to Congress.”

Preserve Viewer Choice Coalition spokesperson Bryce Harlow after the hearing concluded said, “Chairwoman Rosenworcel was extremely clear again today on the FCC’s ability to regulate streaming services; congress is the only one that can regulate streaming video in the manner that large station groups seek. Her thoughtful remarks reaffirm her prior sentiments and are a win for streaming viewers across the country whose ability to access high-quality and affordable content we’re fighting hard to protect.”

In response to the FCC chair's testimony, the Coalition for Local News, which is backed by station groups, noted that in 2014 Rosenworcel had taken a different position on the issue. 

"We appreciate FCC Chair Rosenworcel’s words about the importance of localism, but words are not enough at a time when the failure to modernize rules for the streaming era threatens the long-term viability of local news," the group said in a statement. "In 2014, the FCC recognized its authority to modernize the rules to include streamers. But the right place to start is to re-open the existing record so that industry participants can help the FCC and Congress understand how the market has changed. There is no question of the FCC’s authority to take that action. It’s time to end the delay, which only serves the interests of media giants, and instead move this process forward by refreshing the record to ensure the future of local broadcast."

Chair Rosenworcel’s earlier 2014 statement can be found here. 

WASHINGTON, D.C.—In response to a growing number of programming blackouts caused by programmers and pay TV operators unable to reach carriage and retransmission consent agreements, the Federal Communications Commission chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has announced proposals that she hopes will help consumers impacted by the blackouts. 

The move comes at a time when cord-cutting and the decline of the pay TV ecosystem has produced increasingly acrimonious negotiations between programmers and operators that have produced a number of major blackouts of local stations and TV programming involving Nexstar, DirecTV, Dish, Disney, Charter and others in the last year.  

In response, Rosenworcel has shared two Notices of Proposed Rulemaking with her fellow commissioners that would, if adopted by a vote of the full Commission, seek comment on rebates for consumers and requiring notifications to the Commission of blackouts lasting more than 24 hours.  

“Enough with the blackouts,” said Rosenworcel in a statement. “When consumers with traditional cable and satellite service turn on the screen, they should get what they pay for. It’s not right when big companies battle it out and leave viewers without the ability to watch the local news, their favorite show, or the big game.  If the screen stays dark, they deserve a refund.”

The two related blackout proposals are: 

• Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that seeks comment on whether and how to require cable and satellite providers to issue rebates to subscribers in the event of a blackout due to a failure to reach a retransmission consent agreement with broadcast station(s)/group owners.
• A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that seeks comment on a proposal to require Multichannel Video Program Distributors (MVPDs) to notify the Commission via an online public portal when there is a blackout of 24 hours or more of broadcast programming due to a failure to reach a retransmission consent agreement.  

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. & IRVING, Texas—Following a decision to temporarily end the blackout of Nexstar stations on Sept. 17 so fans could watch Sunday NFL games, DirecTV and Nexstar Media Group have announced a comprehensive new multi-year distribution agreement covering 176 Nexstar-owned local television stations and the company’s national cable news network, NewsNation. 

This follows the return of the television stations and NewsNation to DirecTV, DirecTV Stream and U-verse on the morning of Sept. 17.

Terms of the agreements were not disclosed.

The stations originally went dark on July 2, when they were unable to reach an agreement. 

Bill Morrow, CEO of DirecTV noted that “on Sept. 17, 2023, we began to return Nexstar-owned stations and NewsNation to DirecTV, DirecTV Stream and U-verse customers, and have since finalized a new, multi-year agreement with Nexstar. Unfortunately, over the past decade-plus access to your programming has become a battleground for networks and stations to try to drive up higher rates. As our customers, we recognize that while you may be able to access some programming over-the-air or on a streaming service during these periods, that is not the experience you expect. We understand you have a choice among your TV providers and appreciate your ongoing loyalty during this renewal. That’s what will enable us to offer you more choice, personalization, and further value in future programming you pay to receive in your home. DirecTV and Nexstar greatly appreciate the patience of their subscribers and viewers during this negotiation.”

DirecTV is still involved in a carriage dispute with the 27 stations in 25 metro regions that owned by White Knight and Mission Broadcasting and are not covered by this agreement. They have been unavailable on satellite, streaming and IPTV services since mid-October of last year. DirecTV has filed a federal anti-trust suit and FCC complaints claiming that Nexstar, which manages those stations, is preventing a deal, charges that Nexstar denies. 

Ten million DirecTV subscribers around the country lost access to 159 Nexstar local TV stations and Nexstar’s NewsNation cable channel at 7 p.m. on July 2 after the pay TV operator and the station group were unable to reach a new retransmission consent deal. 

The disruption in service affects DirecTV, Uverse and DirecTV Stream subscribers.  

Nexstar said that DirecTV rejected Nexstar’s offer to extend the current agreement to October 31. 

DirecTV responded by contending that Nexstar was asking more than double the fees DirecTV currently pays. 

“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," said Rob Thun, chief content officer of DirecTV. “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.”

In a press release, Nexstar responded by saying: “Nexstar has been negotiating tirelessly and in good faith in an attempt to reach a mutually agreeable multi-year contract with DirecTV since May, offering the same fair market rates it offered to other distribution partners with whom it completed successful negotiations in the past year.  Nexstar routinely reaches amicable retransmission and carriage agreements with its cable, satellite, and telco partners—in the last three years alone, the company has  successfully completed agreements with more than 500 distribution partners.”

“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,” Nexstar added. 

The blackout widens an already bitter legal and regulatory spat between DirecTV and Nexstar.  On Friday June 30 as the deadline for concluding a new retransmission agreement loomed, both sides traded barbs, accusing each other of not negotiating in good faith and of making unfair demands. 

DirecTV also has an ongoing carriage dispute with Mission Broadcasting and White Knight that has kept stations from Mission and White Knight off DirecTV since October. 

DirecTV filed a March legal suit against Nexstar and the other broadcasters, complaining that Nexstar has prevented the completion of a fair deal because it controls retransmission negotiations for Mission and White Knight. Nexstar has denied it has any involvement in those negotiations.   

In the runup to the blackout, DirecTV also filed an "informal complaint" with the FCC on June 30 alleging that Nexstar continues to violate media ownership and other rules by having de facto control over stations owned by Mission Broadcasting and White Knight, including in 25 markets where Nexstar also owns a top 4 local broadcaster. 

The June 30 FCC filing is available here.

The dispute also comes at a time when summer viewing is traditionally down, a factor that could prolong the dispute, and pay TV operators are faced with massive cord cutting that makes it difficult to raise prices.  

With Nexstar's retransmission agreement with DirecTV about to expire, Nexstar has posted a statement on its stations’ websites that DirecTV customers would lose access to the station’s programming if a new deal is not reached soon. 

The deal reportedly expires at the end of June or early July. It could impact more than 160 Nexstar stations. 

In a statement to TV Tech, Nexstar has said DirecTV rejected “the same fair market rates we offered to other large distribution partners” in other successfully concluded retransmission deals while DirecTV has complained that Nexstar is asking for “more than double” the amount it is currently getting.  

Both companies declined to provide an exact date when the deal expires. 

The current negotiations come in the context of ongoing legal battles between Nexstar and DirecTV. 

DirecTV has an ongoing carriage dispute with Mission Broadcasting and White Knight that has kept stations from Mission and White Knight off DirecTV since October. DirecTV had filed a March legal suit against Nexstar and the other broadcasters, complaining that Nexstar has prevented the completion of a fair deal because it controls retransmission negotiations for Mission and White Knight.  Nexstar has denied it has any involvement in those negotiations.   

With the current deal with Nexstar about to expire, DirecTV filed an "informal complaint" with the FCC on June 30 alleging that Nexstar continues to violate media ownership and other rules by having de facto control over stations owned by Mission Broadcasting and White Knight, including in 25 markets where Nexstar also owns a top 4 local broadcaster. 

In the FCC filing, DirecTV alleges that this control is exercised through a combination of services agreements, financing arrangements and option agreements, and is further evidenced by the behavior of Nexstar, Mission, and White Knight in retransmission consent negotiations with DirecTV. The Complaint also alleges that Nexstar, Mission, and White Knight have misled the FCC about these arrangements for years.

In response to the current retransmission dispute, Nexstar issued a statement to TV Tech saying, "Nexstar has been negotiating tirelessly and in good faith to reach a mutually agreeable multi-year contract with DirecTV since May, offering them the same fair market rates we offered to other large distribution partners with whom we successfully completed negotiations over the last three years. DirecTV has continuously proposed rates that are well below market for the valuable network and local community programming provided by our station(s), leaving us skeptical of whether they are motivated to reach a fair agreement. Nexstar routinely reaches amicable retransmission and carriage agreements with its cable, satellite, and telco partners. Since the beginning of 2020, Nexstar has successfully completed agreements with 500 distribution partners, covering more than 90 percent of the company’s nationwide footprint. In 2022 alone, we successfully completed agreements with more than 50 of our distribution partners, including several large distributors.”

In a statement to TV Tech regarding the current negotiations, DirecTV said “Nexstar, the nation’s largest broadcaster, is demanding to more than double the amount it charges our customers to access approximately 200 local stations it owns or controls in more than 100 metro areas that serve 68% of U.S. TV households. Unfortunately, Nexstar has a long track record of demanding significantly higher fees from all pay TV operators and often forces providers to stop carrying their channels during negotiations. DirecTV will take the necessary actions to provide our customers access to their favorite programming while protecting them from unwarranted price increases.”

IRVING, Texas—Nexstar Media Group has reached a new multi-year distribution agreement with Hulu that will make 122 of the  company’s local television stations and its cable news network, NewsNation, available to subscribers of Hulu + Live.

The deal also provides for the launch of Nexstar’s MyNetworkTV affiliates and independent stations on the virtual MVPD. 

Financial terms of the agreement were not released. 

DirecTV has filed a lawsuit alleging that Nexstar. Mission Broadcasting and White Knight Broadcasting illegally conspired to illegally increase content costs for free over-the-air TV during DirecTV’s negotiations with them over retransmission fees. 

In an email to TV Tech, Gary Weitman, executive vice president and chief communications officer at the Nexstar Media Group rebutted the allegations: "Nexstar’s shared services agreements with White Knight and Mission Broadcasting are in full compliance with FCC rules, and each station group independently negotiates its own retransmission consent agreements with its cable, satellite, and telco partners.  This lawsuit is without merit and Nexstar looks forward to prevailing in court."

 The lawsuit filed in Federal Court for the Southern District of New York stems from a long-running retransmission dispute involving Mission, White Knight and DirecTV that has blacked out their stations on DirecTV since October. Mission and White Knight have a management agreement with Nexstar for Nexstar to handle sales, news and certain other functions at the stations.  

The release announcing the suit claimed that the “trio’s unlawful price-fixing conspiracy has already resulted in 27 local stations remaining blacked out to several hundreds of thousands of DirecTV, DirecTV STREAM, and U-verse consumers spanning 25 cities from Albany to Albuquerque and Billings to Baton Rouge beginning Oct. 7, 2022.”

The DirecTV suit also alleges that Nexstar utilizes Mission and White Knight to skirt FCC station ownership caps and other federal laws through collusive retransmission consent negotiations with “sidecar” station groups that it manages. Nexstar owns overlapping stations with White Knight and Mission in every one of the affected markets and the suit charges both White Knight and Mission allow their respective retransmission consent negotiations to be overseen, administered and subject to the approval of Nexstar in direct violation of applicable laws.

“Mission and White Knight are now unlawfully coordinating with Nexstar to raise prices and extract supracompetitive retransmission consent fees from DirecTV in ‘overlap’ DMAs—those markets where both Nexstar and either Mission or White Knight each own a Big-4 station,” DirecTV states. “To accomplish this unlawful and anticompetitive aim, Mission and White Knight have entered into an agreement in which they have effectively relinquished decision-making authority to Nexstar.”

The suit also alleges that the trio routinely share confidential rates and other financial information through a single agent, closely align their respective blackout dates, and duplicate their public responses to the media to manipulate viewers and betray the public trust once they unilaterally pull their station signals.

A redacted copy of the suit is available here. 

IRVING, Texas—As retransmission fees from pay TV operators are becoming an increasingly fraught issue and operators struggle with massive sub losses, Nexstar is ending live streams of its local newscasts from many of its stations in a bid to make local broadcast content more valuable. 

Nexstar's WTNH, for example, posted on its website that “[i]n order to fulfill our obligations to our cable, satellite, and telco partners, on January 12, WTNH will begin making its newscasts and locally produced lifestyle programming available on the WTNH website two hours after their live broadcast over-the-air.”

The strategy shift was previously reported by FTVLive.

B+C is reporting however that some Nextstar stations continue to offer live newscasts on streaming media. WGN-TV, Chicago, KTLA-TV, Los Angeles, and KRON-TV, San Francisco, will continue to stream local news programming live on their station apps WGN Plus, KTLA Plus and KRON Plus, B+C reported. 

Nexstar reported that other stations will continue to make highlights of newscasts available through video clips and other coverage after the live broadcast and that breaking news and important weather updates will continue to be offered on websites, mobile apps and social media platforms. 

The shift in strategy comes at a time when pay TV operators are seeing mounting sub losses and retransmission consent negotiations with operators have become increasingly fraught. Limiting the live newscasts would allow Nexstar to argue that it deserves higher retransmission fees. 

The pullback from local streaming comes, however, as the industry has ramping up live streaming of local news and viewers have shifted more and more of their viewing to those apps. It raised questions about whether the decision will boost short term profits at the expense of longer term business opportunities.  

BIA has reported that local OTT revenue is the fastest growing ad business, topping $2 billion in 2022 and should top $2.4 billion by 2024.  But those revenues remain tiny compared local TV advertising and retransmission fees. 

BIA estimates that retransmission fees now account for more than 50% of local stations’ revenue but it is forecasting that retransmission revenues could go down to 39% by 2026.  

ENGLEWOOD, Colo.—Dish has announced that Mission Broadcasting and White Knight Broadcasting local stations, which are both operated by Nexstar Media Group, were removed from Dish TV on Jan. 6 after the Dish and the station groups were unable to reach a new retransmission consent agreement. 

The blackout impacts access to stations in 28 markets nationwide. 

Dish noted that the stations are operated by Nexstar but Nexstar has issued a statement that it is not involved in negotiations regarding retransmission consent agreements.

“Both programming groups rejected Dish’s contract extension offers to keep programming available for customers while we continue to negotiate,” said Brian Neylon, group president, Dish TV. “We’re disappointed Mission and White Knight have chosen this course of action. The demanded fees are unreasonable given that Mission and White Knight’s viewership on Dish have significantly declined over the past three years, indicating that many viewers have moved to other channels for programming they prefer.”

"We are extremely disappointed in the Dish Network's unwillingness to forge an agreement," countered Dennis Thatcher, Mission Broadcasting Inc.'s president.  "We are simply seeking the same fair agreement that we have come to with other cable, satellite, and telco providers for the high-quality programming we provide.  We produce thousands of hours of local news and programming.  We pay our network partners millions of dollars for entertainment programming and live sports.  The cost to do these things has, understandably, gone up significantly—especially live sports rights—and these costs are passed along to us, the station owner.  Dish has put more than 800,000 of their subscribers in the middle, denying them programming they've already paid for, rather than negotiating on the basis of current market conditions.  Mission has a long track record of negotiating fairly and avoiding service interruptions in our markets, and we don't want viewers in our local markets to miss any of the vitally important local news, sports, and weather coverage we deliver every day.  Our record of positive negotiations stands in stark contrast to that of Dish.  Many, many subscribers will have seen Dish behave this way in the past. In addition, Dish is trying to deny Mission stations to subscribers in many B, C, and D counties, where so many rely on satellite service, as cable companies won't deliver." 

The Mission Broadcasting stations affected are: 

• (NBC: KRBC) - Abilene, TX
• (FOX: WXXA) -  Albany, NY.
• (CW: KWBQ) - Albuquerque, NM
• (MNT: KASY) - Albuquerque, NM
• (FOX: KCIT) - Amarillo, TX
• (MNT: KCPN) - Amarillo, TX
• (FOX: KHMT) - Billings, MT
• (ABC: WVNY) - Burlington, VT
• (FOX: KLJB) - Davenport, IA
• (FOX: WFXP) - Erie, PA
• (CW: WTVW) - Evansville, IN
• (FOX: KFQX) - Grand Junction, CO
• (ABC: KODE) - Joplin, MO
• (ABC: WLAJ) - Lansing, MI
• (FOX: KLRT) - Little Rock, AR
• (CW: KASN)  -  Little Rock, AR
• (ABC: KAMC) - Lubbock, TX
• (NBC: KTVE) - Monroe, LA
• (CW: WPIX) - New York, NY
• (FOX: KPEJ) - Odessa, TX
• (FOX: WNAC) - Providence, RI
• (ABC: WTVO) - Rockford, IL
• (NBC: KSAN) - San Angelo, TX
• (FOX: KMSS) - Shreveport, LA
• (CBS: KOLR) - Springfield, MO
• (ABC: WAWV) - Terre Haute, IN
• (ABC: WUTR) - Utica, NY
• (FOX: KJTL) - Wichita Falls, TX
• (MNT: KJBO) - Wichita Falls, TX
• (CBS: WYOU) - Wilkes Barre, PA

The White Knight Broadcasting stations blacked out on Dish are:

• (NBC: WVLA) - Baton Rouge, LA
• (FOX: KFXK) - Tyler-Longview-Lufkin, TX

LOS ANGELES AND EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—After nearly a week of sparing in the media, Fox Corporation and DirecTV reached a multi-year distribution agreement on December 3 for FS1, FS2, Big Ten Network, Fox Deportes, Fox Soccer Plus, and a new retransmission consent agreement for each of the local Fox Television Stations across DirecTV, DirecTV STREAM, and U-verse.

Fox had warned on November 28 that its networks and stations would go dark at midnight Friday December 2 if a new agreement was not reached.  

The retransmission consent agreement applies to local FOX owned-and-operated TV stations, including broadcast duopolies in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, Houston, Washington, D.C., Phoenix, Seattle-Tacoma, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne; as well as single FOX stations serving Philadelphia, Atlanta, Tampa-St. Petersburg, Detroit, Milwaukee, Austin, and Gainesville.

As usual, financial terms were not disclosed.

After reporting record declines in pay TV subscriptions in Q2, 2022, MoffettNathanson’s Cord-Cutting Monitor has released new data showing that cord-cutting hit new records in Q3 2022, when total pay TV distribution declined by 6.3%. 

The drop in pay TV subs was slightly worse than the 6.2% slide seen in Q2 and the 5.2% decline seen a year ago in Q3 2022. 

MoffettNathan's definition of pay TV includes both traditional cable and satellite operators as well as newer vMVPDs like Fubo TV and YouTube TV. 

To put this in perspective, MoffettNathanson reported that the “Q3 loss of 655K subscribers is the largest third quarter loss ever; last year’s loss was…617K and the year before just 91K” in Q3 2020. 

“The decline in Q3 leaves pay TV penetration of occupied households including vMVPDs at 61.0% of households, a level last seen in 1993, a year before the arrival of satellite TV in the U.S.,” the researchers explain. 

While broadcasters may view this as a trend reaffirming the value of their over-the-air broadcasts, it also promises to create some serious financial problems for stations, which in recent years have relied heavily on retransmission consent payments from pay TV providers.

BIA has predicted that subscriber fees from retransmission consent agreements will increase from $14.55 billion in 2022 to $17.37 billion in 2030, growth that will be difficult to maintain if the pay TV ecosystem continues to collapse.

This also means that there are now about 34 million incremental homes that “exist entirely outside the cable network ecosystem,” and that the total number is 55 million, MoffettNathanson said. 

The growth of homes outside the pay TV ecosystem could also create problems for local and national broadcast TV advertising, which is already under pressure from streaming, by reducing potential audiences for programming. 

Historically, the rise of pay TV helped expand the reach of broadcast content, which in turn helped their advertising efforts in reaching larger audiences. 

More recently declining pay TV subscriptions have been coupled with higher levels of homes using TV antennas. Nielsen reported in Q4 2021 that 18.6 million homes used antennas, or 15% of the population. 

But those numbers are still much lower than the 55 million homes Moffett Nathanson said are now outside the pay TV ecosystem of both traditional pay TV cable operators and newer vMVPDs like Hulu Live or Sling TV.   

COLORADO—Cox Media Group stations in nine markets were dropped from the Dish TV satellite pay TV lineup on the evening of November 28 after Cox and Dish Networks were unable to agree on terms for a new carriage deal. 

"Cox's refusal to negotiate in good faith and subsequently forcing a blackout of its stations for Dish customers is deplorable," said Brian Neylon, group president, Dish TV. "Cox is demanding an exorbitant rate increase, negotiating for channels it does not yet own and insists on payment from customers who do not subscribe to local broadcasting, even as it continues to underinvest in local programming. Broadcasters like Cox put profits ahead of the public interests they are supposed to serve, even when its viewership has declined for years."

In a press release announcing that the channels had been removed from its lineup, Dish also contended that “over the past two years, Cox's viewership has significantly declined on Dish TV, indicating that many viewers have moved to other channels for their entertainment and news. With its decreased viewership, Cox is attempting to recoup its losses by demanding increased rates of nearly 75 percent from Dish customers.”

In response, CMG posted a statement on the website of WSB-TV in Atlanta, complaining that “Dish Network removed Channel 2 after the satellite provider refused to agree to a fair deal for a new retransmission consent agreement with Cox Media Group…Despite our efforts to negotiate in good faith, Dish still refuses to do a fair deal and has now blacked out 13 CMG stations, including Channel 2. They go dark only if Dish so chooses. CMG is hopeful that Dish will abandon its well-worn path of blacking out TV stations to the detriment of consumers in favor of meaningful negotiations toward a fair deal.”

“Cox Media Group is simply asking Dish to pay a fair rate for the quality local news and entertainment programming we invest heavily in, in addition to the prime-time and sports programming we pay to secure from our networks,” the statement said. 

Cox noted that the station’s programming “remains available for viewers to access over the air, and this dispute will not affect the vast majority of viewers, who are customers of other video providers. It should be noted that Channel 2 has reached agreements with virtually every other major cable and satellite distributor. This is simply Dish doing the same old tactic of dropping valuable stations."

The dispute impacts Dish subscribers who view various ABC, FOX, CBS and NBC stations in nine markets. Impacted stations include:

• (ABC: WSB) - Atlanta, Ga.
• (FOX: WFXT) - Boston, Mass.
• (ABC: WSOC) - Charlotte, N.C.
• (CBS: WHIO) - Dayton, Ohio
• (FOX: KLSR) - Eugene, Ore.
• (FOX: WFOX) - Jacksonville, Fla.
• (ABC: WFTV) - Orlando, Fla.
• (NBC: WPXI) - Pittsburgh, Pa.
• (CBS: KIRO) - Seattle, Wash.

The National Association of Broadcasters is planning to ask the FCC to adopt new regulations that would recognize changes in the television marketplace and force streaming services to be regulated more in line with existing rules for broadcasters. 

In a Politico article, NAB President Curtis LeGeyt said that the effort to re-open rules that had been proposed during the Obama administration was discussed during a recent private board meeting. Such changes would be more inline with “changes in the marketplace” LeGeyt told Politico. It would also reflect comments NAB made to the commission earlier this year in an ex parte filing, which, while it dealt mainly with radio ownership issues, also touched upon reforms to existing rules that would include streaming companies. 

"While this submission primarily responds to invalid claims made by those opposing reform of the local radio rule, NAB’s legal and economic analyses also refute arguments against ownership rule reform more generally, including for local TV broadcasters," NAB said at the time.

Top of mind is retrans: broadcasters want the commission to look into expanding broadcasters’ ability to negotiate contracts beyond traditional cable and satellite pay-TV providers to services that carry broadcasters’ local channels, so-called “virtual multichannel video program distributors” (vMVPVDs) like YoutubeTV, Hulu and SlingTV.  

The move doesn’t come without opposition, however from within NAB, where the networks have differed with the association’s decision to pursue updated rules and the local stations, who are pushing to extend retrans rules to apply to streaming platforms. 

LeGeyt acknowledged this reality, telling Politico, “NAB membership is a large tent, and it is not uncommon for there to be differences of views among our companies. Like any member-driven organization, we move forward when a critical mass of our membership is in agreement, and even in those instances we strive for advocacy that maintains unity for the good of the broadcast industry and the tens of millions of Americans who rely on our service every day.”

The American Television Association, a critic of the NAB, especially over retrans battles that often result in broadcast stations pulling their signals, responded to the Politico article, saying the FCC should pay more attention to updating rules and protecting consumers from rising costs. 

“The broadcast industry wants to take the current framework, which is already responsible for thousands of consumer blackouts and massive annual price increases, and expand it to streaming,” stated ATVA spokesperson, Jessica Kendust. “The FCC should focus on modernizing and fixing the broken system, not imposing new costs on streaming customers.”

WASHINGTON—It may be a new, Democratic-led FCC, but broadcasters and cable operators are fighting the same retrans and media ownership battles.

On March 16, representatives of the American Television Alliance met with a top FCC staffer to argue that the current media ownership rules allow broadcasters to skirt limits and create triopolies and even quadropolies, loopholes they argued should be eliminated.

They argued that consolidation leads to higher retrans fees, that are passed on to consumers, as well as reduced diversity of voices.

ATVA also took aim at the larger retransmission consent regime, saying that 20% annual fee increases and record numbers of retrans-related blackouts did not represent a functioning market.

Only a few days later, representatives of the National Association of Broadcasters met with a different FCC staffer to talk about the same issues, but from quite a different perspective.

NAB said broadcasters can't provide local news, weather, sports and emergency info if they are not competitively viable, which means getting fair value for its valuable local content and not being saddled with regulations not placed on its pay-TV or over-the-top video or social media digital platforms not similarly subject to "onerous" restrictions.

NAB called ATVA an "astroturf group" trying to undermine Congress' will in establishing the retransmission consent/must-carry regime. 

As to the FCC's ownership regs, NAB said they were too strict, not too loose, as well as outdated and harmful. As for diversity of voices, it argues that the FCC has made "no progress" on encouraging diversity of ownership under the rules it claims are necessary to do that. 

"The Commission must face the reality that the very rules it has established to encourage diversity in fact make broadcast investment far less attractive for historically underrepresented groups," NAB told the commission. "Given that a potential investor can choose from many other related industries that are free from onerous ownership (and other) restrictions broadcasters face, the Commission’s own actions have made it even less likely its desired outcome will be achieved."

The FCC is required to review its broadcast regs every four years to determine if they are still necessary in the public interest.

ATLANTA & DALLAS—With the clock ticking toward the kickoff of Super Bowl LV on Feb. 7, Cox Media Group and AT&T announced that they had reached a new multi-year retransmission deal that would return Cox stations in 20 markets to AT&T/DirecTV customers.

The blackout of these stations began in the early hours of Feb. 2, impacting 26 stations in total. In five markets the impacted stations were the local CBS affiliate, which would have made Super Bowl LV unavailable to watch over traditional broadcast for AT&T customers in those markets.

The American Television Alliance (ATVA) had been extremely critical of the timing of the blackout, claiming that Cox has used the prospect of withholding the Super Bowl as a tactic in other retransmission negotiations.

Terms of the new agreement were not disclosed.

Here are the markets that had their CMG stations returned on Feb. 7:

• Alexandria, La. 
• Atlanta 
• Binghamton, N.Y. 
• Boston
• Charlotte, N.C. 
• Dayton, Ohio
• Eureka, Calif. 
• Greenville-Greenwood, Miss. 
• Idaho Falls-Pocatello, Idaho 
• Jacksonville, Fla. 
• Medford, Ore. 
• Memphis, Tenn. 
• Orlando, Fla.
• Pittsburgh 
• Seattle
• Spokane, Wash. 
• Syracuse, N.Y. 
• Tulsa, Okla.
• Yakima-Tri Cities, Wash. 
• Yuma, Ariz. 

WASHINGTON—The American Television Alliance (ATVA) is displeased that Cox Media Group has once again gone to what it believes is a staple of their playbook - threatening or withdrawing stations carrying the Super Bowl as part of retransmission negotiations.

Stations in 20 markets went dark on Feb. 2 as CMG and AT&T/DirecTV failed to reach a retransmission deal. Among the stations impacted are a few CBS affiliates, which means that unless a deal is struck before 6:30 p.m. ET on Feb. 7, DirecTV customers in those markets will not be able to watch Super Bowl LV.

ATVA supports AT&T’s claim that CMG is the one causing the blackout. However, for its part, CMG cites AT&T’s reluctance to accept its offers.

Per ATVA, this tactic is a familiar one for CMG, as it is reportedly the fifth time they have threatened or withdrawn stations that are broadcasting the Super Bowl. Past instances involved Charter Spectrum, Dish Network, Verizon Fios and CableOne, ATVA details.

“This latest contrived blackout holding such an important national event like the Super Bowl hostage demonstrates how broadcasters like Cox Media Group intentionally cause maximum disruption and harm for consumers in order to extract exorbitant fees,” said ATVA spokeswoman Jessica Kendust. “The price-gouging behavior of broadcasters like Cox has become increasingly shameless and exploitative and demands action from policymakers in Washington.”

Kendust says that there is a correlation between the rise in the number of broadcast blackouts in the past decade and the “more than seven-fold” increase in station fees. The number of blackouts have risen to new heights in the last couple of years, particularly, with 278 in 2019 and 342 in 2020, according to ATVA.

ATVA wants policymakers to update retransmission consent laws so as to prevent broadcastings from weaponizing stations licenses and government-granted exclusivities.

ATLANTA—After giving a warning to its customers late last week, Cox Media Group has announced that stations in 20 markets went dark to AT&T/DirecTV customers in the early hours of Feb. 2 as a result of the two sides failing to reach a retransmission deal.

The stations (confirmed on their websites) and markets impacted by the black out are:

• KLAX-TV (ABC), Alexandria, La. 
• WSB-TV (ABC), Atlanta 
• WICZ-TV (Fox), Binghamton, N.Y.
• WFXT-TV (Fox), Boston
• WOSC-TV (ABC) & WAXN-TV (Ind.), Charlotte, N.C.
• WHIO-TV (CBS), Dayton, Ohio
• KIEM-TV (NBC), Eureka, Calif.
• WABG-TV (ABC), Greenville-Greenwood, Miss. 
• Idaho Falls-Pocatello, Idaho 
• WFOX-TV (Fox) & WFOX2-TV (MNT), Jacksonville, Fla.
• KMVU-TV (Fox), Medford, Ore.
• WHBQ-TV (Fox), Memphis, Tenn.
• WFTV-TV (ABC) & WRDQ-TV (Ind), Orlando, Fla.
• WPXI-TV (NBC), Pittsburgh
• KIRO-TV (CBS), Seattle
• KAYU-TV (Fox), Spokane, Wash.
• WSYT-TV (Fox), Syracuse, N.Y.
• KOKI-TV (Fox) & KMYT-TV (MNT), Tulsa, Okla.
• KFFX-TV (Fox), Yakima-Tri Cities, Wash.
• KYMA-TV (CBS, NBC), Yuma, Ariz.

CMG says AT&T/DirecTV was the one to pull the stations, describing AT&T as unwilling to make a deal and “sacrificing” critical news and entertainment sources for their customers.

“CMG viewers know our trusted local stations are there to deliver the news and information they need to make decisions for their families. It’s disappointing that AT&T/DirecTV has decided to deprive them of that access. We take pride in serving our communities and we will fight to continue to fulfill this responsibility,” said says Paul Curran, CMG’s executive vice president of Television.

AT&T gave the following statement to TV Tech regarding the blackout:

"We’re disappointed Cox Media Group and Wall Street financier Apollo Global Management have intentionally put our customers into the middle of a private business matter. We want to get the Cox stations back into their local lineups, but Cox and Apollo alone have exclusive control over which homes are allowed to receive ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and CW in certain cities. And even though broadcasters like Cox keep losing viewers and sponsors, by commanding that exclusivity, they can demand take-it-or-leave-it ultimatums, leaving consumers a more than $12 billion-and-rising bill just to keep their ‘free TV.’ Apollo-owned stations have an extremely long and disreputable history of either threatening or pulling the Super Bowl and other important events from Buckland Telephone Co., CableOne, Charter Spectrum, DISH Network, Frontier Communications, Suddenlink, Verizon Fios and our own customers. Broadcasters like Cox gin up these contrived blackouts at the precise time it hurts their viewers the most, extract higher fees, and then use their own news outlets to try to intentionally mislead people and skirt any accountability for their relentless and unwarranted price-gouging. That’s a shameless violation of the public trust—especially from a local news provider during a global pandemic. Now that there’s a new administration, it’s high time the FCC takes a fresh look at this broken retransmission consent system that encourages blackouts and skyrocketing rate increases at consumers’ expense. We continue to work with Apollo and Cox to get to these stations back and appreciate our customers’ patience while we do."

If a deal is not reached quickly, viewers whose impacted are CBS affiliates could not have access to Super Bowl LV, which airs on CBS on Feb. 7.

ATLANTA—Cox Media Group is warning DirecTV customers for 14 stations that they could lose access to their local station in the early hours of Feb. 2 if the two sides are unable to reach a retransmission deal. CMG shared the news on the websites of the potentially impacted stations.

CMG said in these announcements that AT&T/DirecTV “has refused to negotiate a fair deal that recognizes the value customers place” on their local stations. While CMG says that is continuing to negotiate with AT&T, if no deal is reached the channels will blackout for DirecTV customers, losing their local news, sports and entertainment programming.

AT&T issued a statement via the TV Answer Man blog, saying:

“We’re disappointed to see Cox Media Group put our customers into the middle of a private business matter. We want to keep the Cox stations in their local lineups, but Cox alone has exclusive control over which homes are allowed to receive ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and CW in certain cities. Cox-owned stations have a long history of either threatening or pulling the Super Bowl and other important events from our customers and other providers. We continue to work with Cox to try to avoid any unnecessary disruption and appreciate our customers’ patience while we do.”

Cox just recently settled an 18-day blackout with Altice USA/SuddenLink.

As for the current negotiations with AT&T/DirecTV, should negotiations fail, these are the 14 stations that would be impacted:

• WSB-TV (ABC), Atlanta 
• WFXT-TV (Fox), Boston 
• WSOC-TV (ABC), Charlotte, N.C. 
• WAXN-TV (IND), Charlotte 
• WHIO-TV (CBS), Dayton, Ohio 
• WFOX-TV (Fox), Jacksonville, Fla. 
• WFOX2-TV (MNT), Jacksonville 
• WHBQ-TV (Fox), Memphis, Tenn. 
• WFTV-TV (ABC), Orlando, Fla. 
• WRDQ-TV (IND), Orlando 
• WPXI-TV (NBC), Pittsburgh 
• KIRO-TV (CBS), Seattle 
• KOKI-TV (Fox), Tulsa, Okla. 
• KMYT-TV (MNT), Tulsa 

ATLANTA—Cox Media Group and Altice USA/Suddenlink have struck a retransmission consent deal for multiple stations in six markets.

The stations in Tulsa, Okla.; Memphis, Tenn.; Spokane, Wash.; Eureka, Calif.; Greenville-Greenwood, Miss; and Alexandria, La., have been off Suddenlink systems since Jan. 8, when Cox invoked the pandemic and the importance of local station connectivity to argue that Suddenlink had made and anti-consumer decision by not agreeing to a "fair market deal."

So did Suddenlink during the impasse, saying in a statement: “Despite being in the midst of a pandemic when access to affordable news is incredibly critical, Cox Media Group has pulled its channels from Suddenlink TV lineups in certain markets in an effort to extract an exorbitant increase in fees from us and our customers," Suddenlink, part of Altice U.S., said in a statement."

"The parties wish to thank consumers for their patience during this negotiation," the companies said in a statement announcing the pact.

Jon Lafayette contributed to this report.

TYSONS, Va. & DALLAS—After a nearly three-week blackout, Tegna and AT&T have agreed to a new multi-year consent agreement that will bring Tegna-owned local broadcast stations to AT&T customers of DirecTV and U-Verse.

The agreement covers 64 stations in 51 markets, which had been dark for AT&T customers since Dec. 1. The markets impacted included Atlanta, Charlotte, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Phoenix, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa and Washington, among others. The stations impacted by this blackout cover a reported 41.7 million TV households, representing 39% of the country.

The official agreement was announced on Sunday, Dec. 20. Stations were returned immediately to service, per the companies’ joint statement, in time for viewers to watch Sunday NFL football. 

No terms of the deal were disclosed.

“AT&T and Tegna regret any inconvenience to their customers and viewers and thank them for their patience,” the statement said.

WASHINGTON—The FCC has voted to deny an appeal of its decision that eight station groups failed to negotiate retransmission consent in good faith and has further decided to propose each of the 18 stations at issue over $500,000 apiece. It is the first time the FCC has ever issued a forfeiture order for a failure to negotiate retransmission consent in good faith, as its rules require.

The vote was unanimous, with one partial concurrence by commissioner Michael O'Rielly.

The complaint was filed by AT&T in June 2019 against Deerfield Media, GoCom Media, Howard Stirk Holdings, HSH, Mercury Broadcasting, MPS Media, KMTR Television, Second Generation of Iowa and Waitt Broadcasting, all of which the FCC says failed to meet its standard for good faith negotiation. All the groups were represented by Duane Lammers of Max Retrans. AT&T sued Lammers, though that suit was thrown out.

In December 2019, the FCC's Media Bureau found that the stations had failed to negotiate in good faith with DirecTV and U-Verse (AT&T). The FCC said in granting the complaint that the stations had unreasonably delayed negotiations, including by not responding to AT&T proposals.

AT&T pointed out in its complaint that all the stations involved were "managed and controlled by Sinclair Broadcast Group through some type of shared services agreement." AT&T asked the FCC to 1) find that each station had violated the good faith negotiation requirement, 2) compel the stations still not negotiating in good faith to do so, and fine them.

The FCC this week denied the station challenge and granted the AT&T complaint in full, which included the proposed fines of $512,228 apiece for each station, the "statutory maximum for a single act or failure to act."

"The Bureau made factual findings that Defendants failed to negotiate carriage, unreasonably delayed negotiations and refused to respond to proposals. Upon review of the record, we affirm these findings."

Rather than fine Lammers or the station groups, the FCC said it was appropriate to fine each station, saying " the harm to viewers is multiplied with each station that goes dark, regardless of the number of corporate parents involved in a carriage dispute, underscoring the importance of our focus on individual stations." 

Good faith negotiation complaints are not unusual, but the FCC granting them is. They are generally dismissed for lack of a showing that the negotiations were not in good faith, or dropped after the two sides reach an agreement.

Commissioner O'Rielly only concurred in the amount of the fine, which is short of outright approval, saying: "Even during better days, when our country is not facing the challenges of a global pandemic, imposing the statutory maximum on individual stations by way of a novel, first-time application of the rules could be disproportionately punitive and significantly threaten the operations of these stations."

Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said he fully supported the maximum fine, saying: "Going forward, Negotiating Entities should be on notice that similar instances of apparent failure to negotiate for retransmission in good faith, especially when resulting in blackouts and other harms to consumers, could result in similar proposed penalties."

“ATVA applauds the FCC’s recognition of the need for serious reform regarding the retransmission negotiations process," said the American Television Alliance, which comprises cable and satellite operators and others seeking retrans reform. "We are pleased to see retransmission consent taken seriously in this case,” said ATVA spokesperson Jessica Kendust. “The flagrant abuse and misconduct described in this order are not only typical, but unfortunately, increasingly common by broadcasters during retrans negotiations. Broadcasters’ weaponization of station blackouts during negotiations is costing consumers billions every year. We hope that this decision and these fines totaling more than $9 million represent the first step of a broader reexamination of the broken retransmission consent marketplace.”

"Retrans negotiations are a give-and-take proposition and have been that way for a long time," said Adonis Hoffman, CEO of The Advisory Council and former chief of staff to then FCC commissioners Mignon Clyburn. "The FCC's maximum fine in this instance seems heavy-handed, especially at a time when the media economy is in flux and the rules are not well-established."

WASHINGTON—When it comes to issues with the broadcast competition landscape, the American Television Alliance (ATVA) thinks broadcasters should be looking at their own actions.

In comments filed to the FCC for its biennial competition report, ATVA highlighted four key areas that they believe have negatively affected the competition of the marketplace for multichannel video programming distributor carriage of TV broadcast signals:

• Consolidation by broadcasters despite FCC rules they argue prohibit such actions, leading to reduced over-the-air broadcast voices;
• Increased rate of blackouts; 
• Increased retransmission fees of MVPDs; and 
• Smaller MVPDs exiting marketplace as a result 

This is counter to what the NAB is arguing, which focuses on the increased competition from digital and other sources and the need for fewer/modernized regulations.

ATVA says that broadcasters have been exploiting “loopholes” when it comes to local media ownership of stations so they can control multiple network feeds in a single market. This consolidation has in turn led disputes over the increase of retransmission rates and to a record number of blackouts of local programming in 2019. All of these factor into the exit of smaller MVPDs like Google Fiber, BELD Internet, Three Rivers Communications and RTC Communications essentially exiting the cable business, ATVA claims.

“ATVA has suggested a variety of solutions to these problems in various proceedings,” the organization’s comments read. “We have, for example, urged the commission to find that certain broadcaster conduct violates the ‘totality of the circumstances’ test. We have also urged the commission to look at broadcasters’ use of loopholes to evade the FCC’s local ownership rules. Here, we urge the Office of Economics and Analysis—and the commission more broadly—to consider these issues and potential solutions as it drafts this year’s marketplace competition report.”

ATVA members include ACA Connects, AT&T, Charter, Dish, Verizon, Mediacom and USTelecom.

ATVA’s complete comments are available online. 

ATLANTA—Cox Media Group and Dish Network have announced that they have put an end to the retransmission contract dispute that has impacted 10 markets across the U.S. so those viewers can have access to critical information regarding the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

According to Cox, network stations from ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC have been blacked out in these areas since mid-January:

•  Binghamton, N.Y. 
•  Syracuse, N.Y. 
•  Medford, Ore. 
•  Spokane, Wash. 
•  Yakima-Tri Cities, Wash. 
•  Yuma, Ariz. 
•  Alexandria, La. 
•  Eureka, Calif. 
•  Greenville-Greenwood, Miss. 
•  Idaho Falls-Pocatello, Idaho 

All of the stations have been restored in these areas, effective immediately.

“We are pleased to be able to restore these channels on Dish so that our viewers in these communities can be informed and able to make the right decisions for the safety of their families,” said Kim Guthrie, CEO of Cox Media Group. “We appreciate Dish’s cooperation in agreeing to suspend our dispute so that we can help our viewers navigate through this uncertain time.”

It is unclear whether this is will lead to a permanent resolution or that the retransmission dispute and blackout will again take place at a time when the coronavirus is no longer considered a national emergency.

DALLAS—The Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization—better known as STELAR—is poised to expire at the end of the year and Congress is readying its final approval of the bill that will permanently let it expire, save in a few instances. AT&T’s Senior Executive Vice President of External & Legal Affairs Jim Cicconi expressed why he felt this was a mistake on AT&T’s blog.

Cicconi writes that the removal of STELAR will also remove access to broadcast channels for hundreds of thousands of consumers. “Make no mistake, when the screens of those consumers go dark, the sole reason will be that Congress did not act to protect them,” he wrote.

STELAR is the primary compulsory license that allows satellite operators to import distant network TV station signals to markets. Broadcasters have argued that the license is no longer relevant and have been pushing for it to expire at the end of its most recent five-year renewal cycle this year. Congress seems to have agreed. The House officially passed the appropriations bill that includes the sunsetting of STELAR, and the Senate is expected to do the same by Friday, Dec. 20.

In addition to the sunset of STELAR, the appropriations bill also makes permanent the requirement that retransmission disputes are conducted in “good faith” and it will maintain compulsory licenses for RVs, truckers and “short” markets, which are markets without one or more local network affiliates available.

However, Cicconi does not think these measures will prevent the loss of access to some channels for consumers, but instead there is a need for reform regarding the issue of retransmission fees.

Cicconi presents that retransmission fees for local broadcast stations have grown from $200 million in 2006 to $11.7 billion in 2019—an increase of 5,000%. He says that these increase in fees have trickled down to higher bills for consumers. Rather than address this, Cicconi writes that Congress has “bowed to further demands from broadcasters.”

“If the broadcasters truly want to debate, and to justify such predation based on the principle of free market economics, we are prepared,” writes Cicconi. “But all issues should be on the table. That includes the grant of free spectrum from the public given to local broadcasters for one purpose and now used for another. It should also include the grant of monopoly rights for local broadcasters in specific geographic areas—hardly consistent with any concept of a free market.”

Read the full version of Cicconi’s blog on AT&T’s website.

UPDATE: The NAB responded to Cicconi's blog post with a statement from Dennis Wharton, NAB executive vice president of communications:

“AT&T is being remarkably disingenuous in suggesting that broadcasters are responsible for rising pay-TV prices. Pay-TV prices have increased independent of programming costs for decades. Further, as the attached chart from S&P Global notes, cable network fees are the primary driver of high programming costs. AT&T's own CNN, TBS and TNT networks are among the cable networks charging the highest fees, despite rating that are paltry in comparison to eyeballs delivered by local TV stations.

“There is no reason for 'screens to g dark' as a result of the STELAR bill, as claimed by AT&T. Instead, AT&T's DirecTV has the opportunity as a result of STELAR to fulfill its decade-long pledge to deliver local TV to tens of thousands of viewers in 12 'unserved rural markets. We are hopeful that AT&T delivers on that promise and supports the wishes of Congress in delivering local television signals to rural viewers.”

WASHINGTON—During the latest national test of the Emergency Alert System, more than 80% of television broadcasters successfully received the National Periodic Test alert, and then 75.5% of those retransmitted the code, which was on the lower end of all other participants.

That’s according to initial results of the 2019 Nationwide Test of Emergency Alert System released Dec. 9. This public notice includes “aggregated, anonymized data” derived from the Form Three filings submitted by EAS participants.

This annual test is intended to assess whether the EAS would perform as designed, an increasingly important question as some debate whether the current system is the best way to keep citizens informed in the smartphone age.

A total of 19,607 EAS participants spanning radio and television broadcasters, cable systems, Internet Protocol Television providers, wireline video systems and others reported they received the alert, and 15,986 then retransmitted it. Radio broadcasters make up the majority of EAS participants at 13,940, followed by the 2,717 television broadcasters and the 2,626 cable system providers.

Interesting, the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau noted that nearly half of those who reported receiving the alert said that they were monitoring three or more over-the-air sources at the time. Almost 70% of participants who filed Form Three indicated that there were “no complications” in receiving the test, but about 12% said there were issues with the test’s audio quality. Also, nearly 75% indicated there were no complications during the retransmission, although a small minority said they encountered “other” difficulties.

Read the public notice (DA 19-1244) online here.

WASHINGTON—FCC Chairman Ajit Pai wants to stop any premature panic among cable subscribers that they may be losing channels as a result of retransmission disputes, and to do so has proposed eliminating the required 30-day notification period cable operators must give in favor of doing so “as soon as possible.”

This new measure would be up for discussion and vote during the final FCC meeting of 2019 on Dec. 12.

With the current 30-day notice requirement, cable operators are often forced to let their subscribers know that they could be losing access to a channel or group of channels, only to then strike a deal at the last minute to keep the channels on air for those subscribers. Pai believes that by removing the 30-day requirement consumers can be more “accurately informed and not confused” about what is happening to their service.

“[W]e don’t want consumers to be inundated by premature and inaccurate notices about channel changes that never come to pass,” Pai wrote in a blog post. “And our rule begs the question whether the failure to reach an agreement in the 30 days before a contract expires is within a cable operator’s control. After all, as the saying goes, it takes two to tango.”

There have been multiple instances this year of cable operators and TV stations warning subscribers of the potential loss of channel, only to strike a deal before their contract expires.

By removing the 30-day in advance notification and instead allowing such warnings to go out “as soon as possible” will provide more accurate and clearer messages, according to Pai.

WASHINGTON—AT&T was correct in a complaint it filed arguing that nine station groups were not negotiating a new retransmission agreement in good faith, according to the FCC.

The complaint, filed in June, said that the stations failed to negotiated in good father for consent to carry the signals of 20 broadcast TV stations. As a result, the stations have been blacked out for AT&T video subscribers since the final extensions to the previous retransmission agreement ended, which to date has been five months.

“[W]e find that Defendants’ violated the per se good father negotiation standards,” the FCC’s opinion reads. “We therefore grant AT&T’s Complaint, and direct the parties to commence good faith negotiations.”

The licensees listed in the complaint are Deerfield Media, GoCom Media, Howard Stirk Holdings, HSH, Mercury Broadcasting, MPS Media, KMTR Television, Secont Generation of Iowa and Waitt Broadcasting. AT&T stated in its complaint that all of these station groups were “managed and controlled by Sinclair Broadcast Group through some type of shared services agreement.”

The FCC said that the defendants showed a persistent refusal to negotiate, caused unreasonable delays in negotiations and failed to respond to AT&T’s proposals. While broadcasters do not have a legal obligation to come to terms on a deal, they are required by the FCC and the STELAR Act to negotiate in good faith.

The station groups argued that they were negotiating jointly with AT&T and that their common agent for the negotiations, in this case Max Retrans, was responsible and as long as it was engaged they were in compliance with their good faith negotiation obligations.

The commission disagrees.

“[I]t is not impermissible for Defendant Stations to participate in joint negotiations with AT&T. … However, stations in different markets that choose to negotiate jointly do not gain any special status under the good faith rules; each such station remains ultimately responsible for its own compliance.”

The FCC chose not to fine any of the stations at this time, but said that it reserves the right to return to these issues.

According to AT&T, as of Thursday, Nov. 7, it has reached a retransmission agreement with three of the nine broadcasters involved in the complaint (Deerfield, GoCom and Second Generation of Iowa) and “continue to push for progress with the others.”

TVT’s sister publication, B&C, provides some additional details on how the two sides view this ruling as it relates to STELAR.

BALTIMORE—Following an extension last month that avoided a blackout of Sinclair stations for AT&T customers, the two sides have announced that they have reached a multi-year retransmission consent agreement for DirecTV, AT&T TV and U-Verse subscribers.

The deal covers Sinclair’s owned local broadcast stations, the Tennis Channel, the 21 regional sports networks that Sinclair acquired, the YES Network and the upcoming Marquee Sports Network that will carry Chicago Cubs games.

Financial terms for the deal were not disclosed.

STAMFORD, Conn.—Following a few extensions and a warning from Charter’s Spectrum to its subscribers that Tegna stations could go dark if a new carriage deal was not reached, the two sides have come to terms on a long-term agreement.

“We reached an agreement with Tegna to provide local ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and other multi-cast channels to our customers,” Charter wrote in a tweet. “We are pleased to have reached a fair agreement for everyone and appreciate your support and patience.”

Tegna also tweeted the news: “We have reached an agreement with @GetSpectrum that will ensure our station stays on your lineup. Thank you for reading this message and being part of our community.”

No financial terms for the deal were announced.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo.—The blackout of Fox stations for Dish customers came to an end over the weekend, as the two sides finalized a multi-year carriage agreement, according to an announcement from Dish. As a result, Fox’s owned-and-operated stations, as well as FS1, FS2, Big Ten Network, Fox Soccer Plus and Fox Deportes are once again available for Dish customers.

Fox stations’ went dark on Dish on Sept. 26. The new deal, for which financial terms have not been disclosed, was completed in time that Dish customers were able to watch this past Sunday’s NFL games that aired on Fox.

“We appreciate our customers’ patience as we worked to reach a long-term agreement that restores the Fox networks and local broadcast stations,” a statement from Dish read.

Fox confirmed the agreement in a statement of its own:

“We are pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement with Dish and Sling, and they are immediately restoring their subscribers’ access to the Fox networks and television stations. We are grateful to our viewers for their patience during this disruption.”

DES MOINES, Iowa—Dish customers in 12 markets will once again have access to Meredith-owned local TV stations as the two sides have come to terms on a multi-year retransmission consent agreement.

The stations, which had been blacked out since July, cover markets that include Atlanta, Phoenix, St. Louis and Nashville.

“We are pleased that Dish customers are again able to watch the award-winning news and popular sports and entertainment programming that are a hallmark of Meredith’s television group,” said Patrick McCreery, Meredith Local Media Group president. “We thank our viewers for their patience as we worked with Dish to reach this new agreement.”

Meredith Local Media Group’s 17 TV stations reach 11% of U.S. households, with seven stations in top 25 markets and 13 in top 50.

NEW YORK & EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—Ending a blackout that lasted a little more than three weeks, CBS and AT&T have reached an agreement on a multi-year content carriage agreement to provide CBS-owned local broadcast stations and national channels, including CBS Sports Network and the Smithsonian Channel, to AT&T’s video platforms.

CBS stations went dark for AT&T’s DirecTV, DirecTV Now and U-Verse customers in 14 markets on July 20 after negotiations stalled between the two companies over retransmission fees. As a result of this new deal, the stations will return to all AT&T homes, including having local affiliates available for streaming on DirecTV Now, CBS Sports Network returning to DirecTV and DirecTV Now, and the Smithsonian Channel once again on DirecTV.

The new agreement covers 26 CBS stations in 17 markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta, Tampa, Seattle, Detroit, Minneapolis, Miami, Denver, Sacramento, Pittsburgh and Baltimore.

In a joint statement announcing the deal read: “CBS and AT&T regret any inconvenience to their customers and viewers and thank them for their patience.”

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

This resolves one of the high profile retransmission disputes that AT&T was involved in. As of the time of publication, AT&T is still involved in negotiations with a group of Nexstar stations over carriage.

NEW YORK—The free streaming platform Locast, which has argued that its operation as a non-profit allows it to provide its customers with local station broadcasts without paying a copyright fee or getting permission from broadcasters, is being challenged on that claim. Major broadcasters ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC are serving as plaintiffs in a copyright lawsuit filed Wednesday, July 31, against Locast, specifically the streaming services founder David R. Goodfriend and the Sports Fan Coalition.

Since its founding in 2018, Locast has reportedly acquired tens of thousands of subscribers and is being offered in 13 cities and to 35 million households, representing 31% of the U.S. market. The basis of Locast’s premise of offering retransmissions of broadcast stations at no cost is from the 1976 Copyright Act, which in part was adopted to support non-profit services.

However, through its lawsuit, the broadcasters are arguing that providers must have a license to retransmit copyrighted television programming. Locast does not and therefore its retransmission of content violates their public performance rights, the lawsuit claims.

“Locast is nothing like the local booster services contemplated by Congress in creating this narrow exemption,” the lawsuit reads. “Locast is not a public service devoted to viewers whose reception is affected by tall buildings. Nor is Locast acting for the benefit of consumers who, according to Locast when promoting its purportedly free service, ‘pay too much.’ Locast is not the Robin Hood of television; instead, Locast’s founding, funding and operations reveal its decidedly commercial purposes.”

“Nor is Locast in any respect limited to enhancing the local reception of over-the-air broadcast signals,” the complaint continues. “Defendants’ Locast service allows registered users to access plaintiffs’ copyrighted programming via internet-connected devices, including television sets, laptops, smartphones and tablets. Defendants streams plaintiffs’ programming over the internet 24 hours a day, every day, without authorization, potentially to anyone in the world with an internet connection. And unlike legitimate booster and translator stations, Locast does not have the permission to broadcast stations it retransmits, in New York or anywhere else.”

In comments reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Gerson Zweifach, a partner of Williams & Connelly, which is representing the plaintiffs, compared Locast to Aereo, the service that allowed for live viewing of OTA television on internet-connected devices that was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2014. “Locast is simply Aereo 2.0, a business built illegally on using broadcaster content,” Zweifach said in a statement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.

In recent months, Locast received a $500,000 investment from AT&T while it has also been expanding into additional markets, including Los Angeles and San Francisco in June.

The NAB came out in support of the lawsuit, releasing a statement credited to NAB Executive Vice President of Communications Dennis Wharton that reads: “NAB wholeheartedly backs today’s lawsuit against Locast. This firm is thinly disguised as a not-for-profit entity that mirrors failed predecessors Aereo and FilmOn in its bid to legitimize the theft of local TV broadcast signals.”

David Hosp, Locast's outside counsel, released the following statement:

"Locast is an independent, non-profit organization that provides a public service retransmitting free over-the-air broadcasts. Its activities are expressly permitted under the Copyright Act. The fact that no broadcasters have previously filed suit for more than a year and a half suggests that they recognize this. We look forward to defending our claims—and the public's right to receive transmissions broadcast over the airwaves—in the litigation."

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York.

WASHINGTON—Congress has heard enough complaints from consumers about TV station blackouts from pay-TV operators and now two representatives have introduced a bipartisan bill to overhaul the 25+ year-old retransmission rules.

The 1992 Cable Act, which put into place such rules as must carry and retransmission consent have become “outdated,” according to Reps. Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA), who this week took to YouTube to introduce the “Modern Television Act of 2019.”

Among other things, while it would not repeal must carry, the act would replace retransmission consent with “traditional free market negotiations to happen under ‘traditional copyright law.’” It would also require pay-TV providers to continue to provide broadcast signals for up to 60 days after retrans agreements expired while the two parties held negotiations. It would also allow the FCC to bring a neutral third party into negotiations.

This year has seen a record number of station blackouts according to the ATVA, a coalition of consumer groups, cable, satellite and telephone companies and independent programmers. The most prominent blackouts are occuring now as AT&T has removed Nexstar and CBS-owned stations from DirecTV over disagreements on retrans. Rep. Eshoo, who TV Technology readers may remember from her advocacy for loudness rules earlier this decade, decried the current situation, likening viewers to “hostages.”

"These outdated laws aren’t just bad for the market, they’re hurting consumers,” she said. “When blackouts take place, consumers are held hostage during the disputes between the broadcasters and the cable company. This year, there have been over 200 blackouts. That’s more than double the number from a few years prior. In fact, my constituents are facing major broadcast blackouts right now. These outdated regulations end up hurting consumers in their wallets."

"It’s the end of the road for the outdated 1992 video laws,” said Republican Minority Whip Scalise. “It’s time for Congress to finally modernize these laws. Our bill goes back to basic copyright protection, so that everyone gets paid for their product, and consumers get to choose whatever they want to buy, wherever they want to buy it, whatever device they want to watch their video on."

ACA Connects, which represents small to mid-market pay-TV operators, strongly advocated the proposals.

“I applaud Reps. Scalise and Eshoo for introducing the Modern Television Act. It represents a serious and long-overdue attempt to address the increasing dysfunction in the television marketplace," said ACA Connects President Matthew Polka. "For too long, broadcasters’ greed and ability to leverage their government-granted protections have led to skyrocketing prices and broadcaster blackouts. And for too long, ACA Connects’ smaller cable system operator members have borne the brunt of broadcasters’ misconduct. The Modern Television Act promises real change and real relief for consumers."

“If the Modern Television Act were law today, tens of thousands of Americans—including many customers of ACA Connects members—would never have lost their broadcast signals. And the endless cycle of broadcaster price increases might finally stop, or at least slow down," he said.

“I am especially pleased to see that the Modern Television Act contains provisions that, at long last, would extend the FCC’s good faith rules to negotiations involving buying groups used by small cable system operators, such as the National Cable Television Cooperative."

NAB was not so thrilled.

“NAB respectfully opposes legislation introduced by Reps. Eshoo and Scalise that we believe would undermine America’s world leadership in free and local broadcasting,” the association said Thursday. “We look forward to working with Reps. Eshoo and Scalise—and other policymakers—as we strive to preserve a local broadcasting system that is the envy of the world. In an era of social media dysfunction and the loss of daily newspapers, local television remains an indispensable force for good by exposing corruption at City Hall, keeping communities safe during natural disasters and delivering the most popular source of free entertainment and sports programming.”

NEW YORK & DALLAS—Warnings of a blackout of CBS stations for AT&T/DirecTV customers came to fruition over the weekend, as at 2 a.m. ET on July 20 CBS-owned television stations in 14 markets went dark following the two companies inability to reach a retransmission consent deal.

DirecTV, DirecTV Now and AT&T U-Verse customers in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta, Tampa, Seattle, Detroit, Minneapolis, Miami, Denver, Sacramento, Pittsburgh and Baltimore lost access to CBS-owned television stations, while another 117 CBS stations and affiliates were blacked out on DirecTV Now. The CBS Sports Network was also dropped nationally on DirecTV and DirecTV Now; the Smithsonian Channel was removed from DirecTV. In addition, AT&T Now customers nationwide can’t watch CBS.

The two sides are pointing blame at the other for the failed negotiations.

“Please know that we had no wish to see any local CBS stations removed from our service and had asked CBS to keep them available while we continue to negotiate,” AT&T told customers on its website. “CBS removed them instead. This is completely CBS’s decision.” AT&T also claims that it offered CBS the highest fee it offers to any major broadcast group.

CBS countered in a statement of its own, saying: “After months of negotiations, CBS is simply looking for fair value for its programming and is proposing economic terms similar to those that AT&T’s competitors have accepted in our recent distribution agreements. The DirecTV deal expiring [Saturday] was signed in 2012 and is nowhere close to today’s fair market terms for CBS content—to which AT&T’s competitors have repeatedly agreed.”

CBS and AT&T had already agreed to an extension earlier in July to continue negotiations. Similar to AT&T’s claim that it offered to keep CBS stations on-air, CBS said it offered an additional 30-day extension for negotiations, but AT&T declined.

This is another retransmission fight for AT&T, which is currently in the midst of ones with Nexstar and a group of smaller stations. With the CBS blackout, there are now 162 stations dark to AT&T video customers.

AT&T, however, is instructing its customers on how it can still access CBS content despite the blackout. In some cities, viewers can watch their local CBS stations through the Locast app; CBS stations can also be viewed through the CBS All Access platform or local stations can be viewed over the air, on stations websites or via cbs.com.

Blackouts have unfortunately common in 2019, as there have already been 213 instances of channels going off the air through the first seven months, tying the record for the entirety of 2017.

WASHINGTON—On Tuesday, June 18, AT&T filed a “bad faith” complaint with the FCC against nine TV station owners that have pulled 20 stations in 17 cities across AT&T’s DirecTV, DirecTV Now and/or U-Verse; the stations went black on May 30 and June 10. AT&T says that all the stations have shared service agreements with Sinclair Broadcast Group, which it writes in the filing appears to “manage and control” the stations; however, Sinclair was not targeted in the complaint.

The nine station groups included in the complaint are Deerfield Media, GoCom Media of Illinois, Howard Stirk Holdings, Mercury Broadcast Group, MPS Media, Nashville License Holdings, Robert Media, Second Generation of Iowa and Waitt Broadcasting.

Several of the stations affected have said that their retrans deals expired on March 31, though they continued to include their channels on the AT&T services through extensions, with Howard Stirk Holdings and Robert Media saying they offered an unconditional extension earlier this month but were rejected by DirecTV. AT&T says, however, that the nine stations have ignored individual proposals and have been refusing to negotiate “for months.”

That claim that the broadcasters are refusing to negotiate is critical in determining whether the stations are operating in bad faith. Broadcasters, while under no obligation to make deals to have their stations on MVPD services, are required by the FCC and Congress, through the STELAR Act, to negotiate in good faith.

Congress is currently considering the reauthorization of the STELAR Act, which the American Television Alliance says will end the FCC’s authority to enforce the “good faith” rules in regard to retransmission consent.

“This is another symptom of a broken system that’s fueling the blackout crisis and causing retrans fees to skyrocket,” said ATVA spokesman Trent Duffy to AT&T’s stand-off with the stations group. “Congress should not only re-authorize STELAR to maintain the FCC’s authority to enforce ‘good faith’ rules, but also modernize retransmission consent rules, which currently favor broadcasters at the expense of consumers and competition.”

In its filing, AT&T said that the stations “went dark,” refusing to respond after their contracts expired. It also claims that the impasses are not over specific issues, but are instead a part of a strategic delay.

AT&T is hoping that the FCC finds that each station has not negotiated in good faith, force them to the table, require forfeitures and anything else the commission deems appropriate. 

UPDATE: This story's headline was updated to reflect that Sinclair manages and controls, but does not own, these stations.

MCLEAN, VA–Station group Tegna announced late Thursday that it has reached a multi-year carriage agreement with Verizon, which dropped three of Tegna’s stations from its FiOS lineup on New Year’s Eve.

Financial details and length of agreement were not disclosed.

WUSA in Washington, D.C., WVEC in Norfolk, VA and WGRZ in Buffalo, NY will return to the Verizon lineup effective immediately, Tegna said.

WASHINGTON—Last year TV broadcasters set a record for the number of blackouts recorded in a single year, taking down cable and satellite TV signals 213 times, according to the American TV Alliance. By way of comparison, there were eight TV blackouts nationwide in 2010, the alliance said.

“Broadcaster blackouts roared back in 2017 after the FCC suspended its investigation of abusive broadcast industry tactics,” said ATVA spokesman Trent Duffy in a press release issued today. “Broadcasters have weaponized TV blackouts, deliberately targeting live sports and other must-see TV to inflict maximum pain on innocent consumers.”

Broadcasters often black out channels when retransmission negotiations reach an impasse. The alliance predicts this tactic will continue until Congress and the FCC get involved “to protect consumers,” said Duffy. ATVA has asked the FCC to ban broadcasters from blacking out marquee programming as leverage during retransmission negotiations

The American TV Alliance, which calls itself “a voice for the TV viewer,” counts among its partners the American Cable Association, the NTCA – Rural Broadband Association, DISH Network, Charter Communications and Verizon, according to the group’s website.

Tens of millions of pay-TV viewers were denied access to local news, weather and live sporting events in 2017, the alliance said.

“Broadcasters pocketed $9.3 billion in 2017 from pay TV customers for ‘free’ TV,” the alliance said in its press release, quoting figures from SNL Kagan. Some of the events broadcasters blacked out last year included the Super Bowl, awards shows, college football bowl games, the NFL Playoffs, March Madness and other programming, it said.

The alliance singled out CBS, which it said denied millions of DISH Network customer in 18 markets across 26 states access to the 2017 Thanksgiving Day Parade, holiday specials and NFL football. Further, CBS earned an additional $1 billion from retrans last year and is on track to collet $2.5 billion more by 2020, it said. Overall, TV broadcasters are projected to earn an additional $12.8 billion by 2023.

According to the ATVA, by year the number of blackouts totals: 213 in 2017; 104 in 2016; 193 in 2015; 94 in 2014; 119 in 2013; 90 in 2012; 42 in 2011 and eight in 2010.

In a response to ATVA’s press release, NAB’s Executive Vice President of Communications Dennis Wharton released the following statement:

“ATVA should look in the mirror to determine who's really responsible for retrans disruptions: ATVA's own members—the largest pay-TV companies in the business—cynically force impasses in hopes that Washington will inject itself into free market negotiations. Despite pay TV posturing, 99 percent of all retrans deals are completed successfully, and we look forward to continue partnerships with pay TV operators for our valued, most-watched broadcast programming.”

BALTIMORE—Sinclair Broadcast Group and the National Cable Television Cooperative have announced they have come to terms on a multi-year retransmission agreement. The deal will allow NCTC member companies to opt-in to the deal.

NCTC will now represent more than 2 million ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox subscribers in Sinclair’s markets, as well as 700,000 CW and MYTV subscribers. In addition, carriage of the Sinclair-owned Tennis Channel was part of the agreement.

NCTC has more than 850 independent cable/broadband operator members.

WASHINGTON—The American Cable Association today advised the Federal Communications Commission it will keep a watchful eye on broadcasters to find instances during retransmission negotiations in which broadcasters demand its members carry their ATSC 3.0 signals and promised to file a Petition for Reconsideration of the FCC order authorizing next-gen OTA TV transmission if they do.

In an ex parte letter sent, ACA SVP Ross Lieberman noted that over the next month “a substantial majority” of the association’s small and mid-sized cable operators will be renegotiating retransmission agreements. The ACA has 30 days from when the Order is published in the Federal Register to submit the petition to reconsider and will file the reconsideration petition if ATSC 3.0 carriage is a demand, he wrote.

“We hope, however, that broadcasters will show some measure of restraint, at least while the period for reconsideration remains pending,” Lieberman said in the letter.

During the proceeding authorizing ATSC 3.0 transmission, the ACA and the American Television Alliance (ATA) contended that negotiations for first-time ATSC 3.0 carriage should remain separate from retransmission negotiations. Doing so would “make the ATSC 3.0 transition truly ‘voluntary,’” he wrote.

However, Lieberman wrote there is “evidence showing that broadcasters are already [emphasis Lieberman’s] seeking ATSC 3.0 carriage” in retransmission negotiations.

The ACA senior vice president pointed to an Oct. 25 ex parte letter filed with the agency by Michael Nilsson, an attorney with the Washington D.C. law firm of Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis LLP. In that letter, Nilsson wrote: “The ATVA representatives each reported that broadcasters already seek to require carriage of ATSC 3.0 in recent retransmission consent negotiations.”

Further, Nilsson noted that during an Oct. 23 meeting with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Brendan Carr, Chip McDonald of Cable ONE and Melisa Ordonez of Dish said “that nearly all broadcaster contract offers received in recent months have sought ATSC 3.0 carriage.”

In his letter, Liebermann referenced a statement from FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly that an attempt by broadcasters to make the transition to ATSC 3.0 involuntary “’could violate the obligation for broadcasters to negotiate in good faith.’’

Liebermann wrote : “Because the Commission chose not to adopt new rules preventing forced carriage of ATSC 3.0, broadcasters may now feel more liberated to make such demands,” particularly of ACA members, which are typically smaller and “susceptible to broadcast coercion….”

The NAB declined to comment.

For a comprehensive list of TV Technology’s ATSC 3.0 coverage, see our ATSC3 silo.

WASHINGTON—Small cable operators want to know how they would fit into the proposed voluntary ATSC 3.0 adoption scheme. The American Cable Association filed comments on the Federal Communications Commission’s recent proposal to allow broadcasters to voluntarily deploy ATSC 3.0, also referred to as the “next-generation” form of signal transition.

“Capacity-constrained MVPDs will face unique burdens associated with the transition, particularly if forced to carry higher resolution ATSC 3.0 signal,” the ACA said.

The FCC published its related Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Feb. 2, acting on a petition by broadcast and consumer equipment lobbies to authorize voluntary adoption of ATSC 3.0, a multifaceted suite of technology standards that will propel broadcast TV into the Internet Age. The NPRM seeks feedback on how to incorporate ATSC 3.0into the post-auction channel repack on track to commence this spring. The NPRM also seeks comment on which elements of the standard to authorize, as well as how to handle simulcasting, interference, public interest obligations, must-carry and retransmission consent.

The ACA suggested adding a few questions about the impact on its members—smaller and rural multichannel video programming distributors, or MVPDs, e.g.:

“ We seek comment on whether small, rural, and capacity-constrained MVPDs would face unique circumstances with regard to the voluntary provision of ATSC 3.0 that we should consider in this proceeding.... Hundreds of small MVPDs will be renegotiating thousands of separate retransmission consent agreements by the end of this year. Should the commission address circumstances where a broadcaster conditions carriage of a 1.0 signal on carriage of a 3.0 signal while the NPRM is pending?

The ACA further suggests the commission should seek comment on how its members are supposed to receive ATSC 3.0 since the technology for them to do so is not yet available, and who will pay for the necessary upgrade. “Will these MVPDs also face particular difficulty in assuming the costs to deliver ATSC 3.0 signals to their customers, such as costs associated with new receivers and other headend equipment,” the filing said.

The NPRM is on the commission’s Feb. 23 agenda for vote but has not yet been published in the Federal Registers, which in turn will trigger a 60-day comment cycle and a subsequent 30-day reply cycle.

Also see…
Feb. 2, 2017
“FCC@3.0: OET-69, Public Interest, Yes; Tuner Edict, No”
A February vote would roughly coincide with the end of the TV spectrum incentive auction, which starts the 39-month deadline clock for stations moving to new channel assignments. The NPRM seeks feedback on how to incorporate ATSC 3.0 into this post-auction channel repack.

Feb. 2, 2017
“FCC Proposes ATSC 3.0 Deployment”
A plan for voluntary adoption the “next-generation” television broadcasting transmission standard known as ATSC 3.0 has been proposed at the FCC, which represents a seminal event in the development of the standard. 

For more TV Technology coverage, check our ATSC 3.0 silo.