Tegna has accused DirecTV of not taking negotiations to restore channels seriously. Last week, DirecTV and DirecTV Stream customers lost access to a number of local channels following the inability of DirecTV and Tegna to agree a new carriage deal.
At the time, DirecTV accused Tegna of “demanding double-digit annual rate increases” and suggested this was the reason for the dispute and the loss of channels. According to DirecTV, agreeing to the proposed rate increases “would make it the most expensive broadcaster nationwide” and would lead to customers paying more for their subscription.
Along with the accusations leveled at Tegna, DirecTV also revealed that it had proposed a Pay TV a la carte model which would allow Tegna to set its own prices while also offering customers the choice to opt in or out of the channels.
In a statement to Streaming Better, Tegna responded by accusing DirecTV of not seriously negotiating. Tegna also looked to illustrate DirecTV’s lack of willingness to service all customers by revealing the company proposed to only return the dropped stations to military and government facilities.
Below is the statement provided by Tegna in full.
“TEGNA is concerned for all our viewers. That is why we submitted our first proposal to DirecTV back in September – to provide ample time to reach a fair agreement. It is unfortunate that DirecTV chose to not engage with us seriously throughout that time, and waited until nearly a week after our contract expired to reply to our last offer. Nevertheless, we are prepared to work around the clock to reach a deal and have shared an updated offer to DirecTV that can allow us to achieve that goal. If DirecTV is serious about doing right by consumers, it will work with us to promptly reach a deal that restores our stations before any of their subscribers miss another moment of college or NFL football, valuable news and information or any of the other valued programming our stations deliver each day. In the meantime, we continue to remind DirecTV subscribers that our stations remain available on virtually all other cable and satellite services nationwide and are always available free over-the-air.”
What is clear from this latest statement is that it remains unclear as to when a deal will be agreed. As a result, it also remains unclear as to when affected customers will regain access to the dropped channels.
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