Rob Thun: Celebs Rumors

DirecTV will allow customers to opt out of local TV stations and pay a lower monthly rate.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Tired of forking over hundreds of dollars for cable channels that aren’t always available? DirecTV may have a solution, albeit a controversial one. The satellite content distributor said Sunday it would give its subscribers the choice to “opt out” of receiving the feeds of local TV stations “for as long as they want,” and get a discount for doing so.

Dozens of local TV stations owned by Tegna, most of them NBC and CBS affiliates, have gone dark on DirecTV in a carriage dispute.

More than 10 million DirecTV customers are without Nexstar stations as of Sunday evening after the two companies failed to come to terms on a new deal.DirecTV removed Nexstar’s 159 TV stations from its satellite, cable and streaming systems as a result, which includes major broadcast networks CBS, Fox, ABC, NBC and The CW as well as NewsNation, the cable news channel. Subscribers in 113 markets, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Denver, are all affected.“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 in a statement.“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,” Rob Thun, DirecTV chief content officer, said in a statement to TheWrap.

A new carriage dispute has been initiated between Nexstar Media Group and DirecTV forcing more than 150 local TV stations to go dark.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Just in time for Earth Day, DirecTV has sealed a deal to add the environmental lifestyle channel EarthxTV to its lineup. EarthxTV will be added to the mix for DirecTV, DirecTV Stream and U-verse customers starting Saturday, April 15. This marks the widest distribution deal to date for EarthxTV. “EarthxTV is a great addition to bring to our DirecTV entertainment lineup in this week leading up to Earth Day, and we look forward to offering the service for years to come,” said DirecTV chief content officer Rob Thun in a statement. “We’re proud to engage with organizations that help benefit our environment and offer support to their grassroots efforts in the communities where our employees live and work.”

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor DirecTV is trading one kind of football for another. After agreeing to part ways with the NFL’s Sunday Ticket package, DirecTV is picking up soccer. The satellite-programming distributor will become the national provider of MLS Season Pass, a new subscription service from Apple and Major League Soccer, to commercial establishments such as bars, lounges and restaurants. The offering is knows as DirecTV for Business. “DirecTV for Business boasts an unrivaled nationwide network of more than 300,000 venues where local sports fans gather who count upon us to deliver the very best in live action,” said Rob Thun, chief content officer at DirecTV, in a statement. “We welcome the addition of MLS Season Pass to an already market-leading lineup of sports properties that our commercial customers can continue to receive seamlessly through their existing satellite equipment and offer to their patrons.”

Amazon and DirecTV have come up with an answer to the question many NFL fans have had since the tech giant locked up exclusive rights to NFL Thursday Night Football: Will the game be on at the corner bar?

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorSatellite-distributor DirecTV, which weeks ago unveiled plans to drop conservative outlet OAN, still wants to offer viewers right-leaning content.The company said it had already begun to offer Fox Nation, the subscription-video service that acts as a companion service to Fox News Channel. Fox Nation is being made available as a “premium add-on” for DirecTV subscribers, the company said.