Nexstar Stations and NewsNation Go Dark on DirecTV as Carriage Contract Expires
variety.comCynthia Littleton Business Editor More than 150 local TV stations owned by Nexstar Media Group went dark on DirecTV’s platform as of 4 p.m.
PT Sunday after the sides failed to come to terms on a new retransmission consent agreement. The blackout includes Nexstar stations in New York (WPIX), Los Angeles (KTLA) and Chicago (WGN) and also Nexstar’s NewsNation channel.
In total, 159 station serving 113 markets went dark after a last push of negotiations in late June. DirecTV serves about 12.7 million subscribers across the U.S.
Nexstar said it offered to extend the current deal to Oct. 31 to allow contract talks to continue. Nexstar indicated that the blackout affects at least 10 million subscribers across DirecTV’s footprint. “Nexstar remains hopeful that a resolution can be reached quickly to return to viewers their favorite network programming, live sporting events, in-depth local news, and other local content relevant to their communities, as well as critical emergency updates for which DirecTV is charging its subscribers,” Nexstar said.
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