Local television broadcaster TEGNA has reached a deal with the Walt Disney Company’s entertainment business to keep ABC programming on more than a dozen of its stations.
The deal announced on Tuesday extends the company’s existing relationships in markets like Sacramento, Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin and Louisville.
The renewed agreements cover WFAA (Channel 8) in Dallas-Fort Worth, KVUE (Channel 24) in Austin, KBMT (Channel 12) in Beaumont and KIII (Channel 3) in Corpus Christi.
Other stations covered by the agreement include KXTV (Channel 10) in Sacramento, WATN (Channel 24) in Memphis, WHAS (Channel 11) in Louisville, WJXX (Channel 25) in Jacksonville, WNEP (Channel 16) in the Wilkes-Barre-Scranton market, WOI (Channel 5) in Des Moines, WQAD (Channel 8) in the Quad Cities, WVEC (Channel 13) in Norfolk and WZZM (Channel 13) in Grand Rapids.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The companies also did not specify the length of the renewed contracts beyond describing them as multi-year agreements, though affiliation agreements typically run anywhere from three to five years.
The agreement maintains ABC’s presence across TEGNA’s station portfolio, which combines network programming with locally produced newscasts, weather coverage and other programming. It comes at a time when some other broadcasters have opted to remove ABC from their local stations over criticism of higher programming-related fees charged by Disney and its decision to relegate premium entertainment and sports to its own streaming services, which de-incentivize viewers from tuning in to their local TV stations.
Last year, Berkshire Hathaway-owned WPLG (Channel 10) in Miami announced it was dropping ABC programming and converting to a full-time independent station after executives felt they could not justify higher fee demands made by Disney for the continued carriage of its prime-time shows and premium sports. Executives specifically pointed out Disney’s strategy of selling shows directly to viewers through its streaming platforms Hulu and Disney Plus as a core reason for the format change. ABC programming now airs in Miami on a digital sub-channel of Fox affiliate WSVN (Channel 7).
TEGNA is owned by Nexstar Media Group, but is operating as a subsidiary with separate executive teams and management due to an ongoing antitrust lawsuit brought by DIRECTV and several state attorneys general. California Attorney General Rob Bonta is leading the lawsuit on behalf of the coalition of states; in an initial complaint made in federal court, California regulators said TEGNA’s ownership of KXTV in Sacramento and Nexstar’s ownership of Fox affiliate KTXL (Channel 40) raised concerns of legality over Nexstar’s acquisition of TEGNA.
