The following short statement has been published on BusinessWire:
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. & IRVING, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–DIRECTV and Nexstar Media Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: NXST) have officially reached a comprehensive new multi-year distribution agreement covering 176 Nexstar-owned local television stations and the company’s national cable news network, NewsNation. This follows the return of the television stations and NewsNation to DIRECTV, DIRECTV STREAM and U-verse on the morning of Sept. 17.
Terms of the agreements were not disclosed.
DIRECTV and Nexstar greatly appreciate the patience of their subscribers and viewers during this negotiation.
As this blog and others reported, Nexstar stations were restored to DIRECTV subscribers yesterday (Sunday, September 17) in time for NFL games that were carried on Nexstar stations. Both parties said that they were “continuing negotiations.” Now, that could have meant an additional months-long delay. In practice, though, it usually means that an agreement will come in the next day or so. And, it did.
This puts an end to one of the most significant channel blackouts in recent history. We regular people will never know what the terms ended up being. I can say that I joined with bloggers and YouTubers across the country to say “enough is enough” and it seems to have had some effect. I think DIRECTV was right to stand firm during the summer, to try to keep costs down for everyone. But, as summer turned into NFL season, I think both sides started to lose money fast. No one was going to win an argument where millions of dollars are lost by both sides.
Any benefit to consumers?
As I said, we’ll never know if DIRECTV agreed to pay more to Nexstar. That’s just not how those coverage agreements work. However, I’ll make an educated guess. Last week, we saw Disney apparently cave in its battle with Spectrum. Spectrum seemed to get exactly what it wanted, and from the sound of it, Disney didn’t get any more money. The overwhelming feeling from industry insiders is that Disney just didn’t have as much bargaining power as they thought they did. Disney’s own branded content seems to be suffering in quality and the world finally seems to be getting wise about what I’ve been saying for years about ESPN.
If you look at that deal as typical of what’s really going on, the chances are that Nexstar had no choice but to realize that it didn’t have the bargaining power it needed. The ongoing entertainment strikes are likely to torpedo new programming for a year or more at this point. That doesn’t help an organization like Nexstar whose primary holdings are broadcast TV stations.
Mark my words, this will happen again
For years, I have been saying that the FCC should intervene in channel blackouts if they affect a large percentage of the population. If you’re finding out that millions of people are going to lose programming, then the companies involve should either agree to binding arbitration or be forced to keep programming on the air while negotiations are taking place. I don’t think those are onerous requirements. Others may disagree. But remember the core of TV programming is providing a public service and the very minimum that broadcasters can do is actually provide that service.
In the absence of some common-sense rules, this is going to happen again. Why? Because broadcasters are always going to want more money, even when the ratings don’t merit it. And pay-TV companies, leery of raising prices, will fight back. This blackout took all summer to resolve. How long will the next one take?
