Local TV company TEGNA has reached an agreement with AT&T to restore five dozen broadcast stations on DirecTV and AT&T U-Verse.
TEGNA’s channels in 51 regional television markets have been unavailable to DirecTV and U-Verse customers since December 1 when a temporary agreement to keep the channels on those platforms expired with no new deal in place.
Terms of the deal reached on Sunday were not disclosed.
The agreement resolves an issue in which some DirecTV and U-Verse customers in markets where TEGNA owns the local CBS or NBC station were unable to watch live telecasts of National Football League games without using an alternate service.
During the dispute, AT&T directed customers to use Locast, a not-for-profit streaming service that offers streaming access to local TV stations in two dozen markets for free.
In dueling statements, AT&T accused TEGNA of demanding the “largest rate increase ever” for the right to carry the local stations, while TEGNA argued it was simply asking for fair compensation under terms that were similar to other deals it had reached with competing pay TV providers.
I've asked @ATT to explain if TEGNA's demand for "the largest rate increase we've ever seen" was ultimately met.
It's not fair consumers get dragged through a retrans fight for weeks only to be told that "terms of the deal were not disclosed." https://t.co/W90W9PcDEj
— Matthew Keys (@MatthewKeysLive) December 20, 2020
