As Cox Media Group stations formerly owned by Brian Brady‘s Northwest Broadcasting cheer their return to Suddenlink lineups across the U.S., Apollo Global Management-controlled CMG faces another retransmission consent battle.
This one involves one of the nation’s two direct broadcast satellite providers.
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A carriage dispute is brewing between CMG and DirecTV.
And, it could see the prevention of 14 Cox-owned stations from reaching DirecTV users as of Tuesday (2/2).
The stations potentially impacted include:
- WSB-2, the ABC affiliate in Atlanta
- WFXT-25, the FOX affiliate in Boston
- WSOC-9, the ABC affiliate in Charlotte, and independent sibling WAXN-64
- WHIO-7 in Dayton, the market’s dominant station and a CBS affiliate
- WFOX-30 in Jacksonville, the FOX affiliate along Florida’s First Coast, and the MyNetwork TV affiliate using WFOX-30.2
- WHBQ-13, the FOX affiliate in Memphis
- WFTV-9, the ABC affiliate in Orlando, and unaffiliated WRDQ-27
- WPXI-11, the NBC affiliate in Pittsburgh
- KIRO-7, the CBS affiliate in Seattle
- KOKI-23, the FOX affiliate in Tulsa, and MyNetwork TV sibling KMYT-41
These are the legacy Cox Media Group TV properties, in addition to ex-Northwest owned WHBQ and KOKI.
What about other former Northwest Broadcasting properties?
They are under a different contract, but a similar threat hangs over those properties. A statement posted on FOX affiliate KAYU-28 in Spokane — just returned to Suddenlink — confirms that a new retransmission agreement is needed by 3am Eastern Tuesday to prevent a “blackout” on DirecTV.
On flagship WSB-2’s website, Cox puts the blame on AT&T-owned DirecTV, which is “refusing” to agree to “a fair agreement.”
In a statement, CMG said, “We cannot prevent AT&T/DirecTV from retransmitting the stations. They go dark only if AT&T/DirecTV so chooses. We are hopeful that AT&T/DirecTV will abandon its blackout of our station to the detriment of viewers in favor of meaningful negotiations that lead to a mutually beneficial deal for all parties.”
Of course, that statement is patently false. Retransmission consent agreements require each party to OK a deal they believe is favorable.
Thus, CMG bears some responsibility.
What does AT&T have to say? In a statement provided to consumer bog TV Answer Man on Thursday night, the DirecTV owner said, “We’re disappointed to see Cox Media Group put our customers in the middle of a private business matter. We want to keep the Cox stations in their local lineups, but Cox alone has exclusive control over which homes are allowed to receive ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and CW in certain cities.”
AT&T then assailed Cox for its “long history of either threatening or pulling the Super Bowl and other important events from our customers and other providers.”
With days remaining, AT&T concludes that it is continuing to work with CMG “to try to avoid any unnecessary disruption and appreciate our customers’ patience while we do.”
