3 weeks Ago By Michael Liedtke
announced Saturday it had reached a deal with . that will restore and ABC-owned stations to its service after a nearly 2-week dispute that blacked out those networks for millions of viewers across the U.S.
The end of the impasse came in time for sports fans to watch slate of college football games on . It also will ensure that ABC’s telecast of the Emmy Awards on Sunday night will be available in more major markets where viewers subscribe to DirecTV’s pay service. ABC had been unavailable since Sept.
1 on in several markets where the station is owned by . Those were located in the San Francisco Bay Area; Fresno, California; New York; Chicago; Philadelphia; Houston; and Raleigh, North Carolina. DirecTV’s 11 million subscribers abruptly lost access to , the ABC-owned stations and other -owned channels such as FX and National Geographic during the Labor Day weekend in a dispute over carriage fees and programming flexibility.
Some viewers were watching the fourth round of the U.S. Open tennis tournament when suddenly went dark and others were getting ready to watch a college football showdown between LSU and Southern California.
The impasse also kept the NFL’s opening game of Monday Night Football off of DirecTV’s service. Financial details of new deal with weren’t disclosed as part of Saturday’s announcement. DirecTV’s payments to will be based on “market-based” pricing, according to the announcement about the deal.
The agreement also will give the ability to offer video streaming services a la carte as well as in its own bundled packages. won the right to include forthcoming direct-to-consumer streaming service at an additional cost to its subscribers once it becomes available. The deal came a few days after the rising tensions led to file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission accusing of negotiating in bad faith.
This is the second consecutive year wrangling over the rights to its programming has resulted in its networks gong dark on a pay-TV service. Last year, pulled its channels from Spectrum - the second largest cable-TV provider in the U.S.
- for 12 days before settling the dispute just before was set to show that season’s Monday Night Football opener. Copyright © 2024 The Washington Times, LLC. Click to Read More and View Comments Click to Hide.
