Cox Media Group reached a deal that enabled its TV stations nationwide including Atlanta’s WSB-TV back on the air for its DirecTV subscribers.
In a joint statement, CMG and DirecTV confirmed that the have “officially reached a new multi-year agreement that will restore all CMG stations ... effective immediately.”
The new agreement enabled the ABC affiliate to be back on the air for DirecTV, DirecTV stream and U-Verse subscribers Sunday evening after an eight-day blackout. This is similar to a five-day blackout that happened three years earlier.
The timing was fortunate for two CMG stations in Seattle and Dayton, Ohio, that are CBS affiliates and were able to air the Super Bowl.
“We will continue to work with broadcasters like CMG, as well as any other programmers, to align the price our customers pay with the value they can expect to receive,” DirecTV said in a statement.
The same situation happened in 2021, but in that case, the impact was on the three ABC affiliate stations in Atlanta, Orlando and Charlotte when that network aired the Super Bowl.
This means DirecTV subscribers will be able to watch not just Channel 2 Action News again but also “Good Morning America,” “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” “The View” and “General Hospital” as well as fresh episodes of “Judge Steve Harvey” and “The Bachelor” as well as the second season debut of “Will Trent” Feb. 20.
Cable and satellite operators such as DirecTV, Comcast and Spectrum sign regular contracts to retransmit cable and broadcast networks signals, paying them a fee that indirectly gets passed on to the customers. Occasionally, the two sides fail to come to an agreement and networks get blacked out.
How long these blackouts last varies. WSB-TV remains off the air from satellite rival Dish TV since November 2022. That dispute has been unresolved for 15 months.
CMG has been majority owned by private equity firm Apollo Global Management since 2019. Cox Enterprises, which also owns The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has maintained a minority stake in CMG.
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