And just like that, every broadcast television station owned by The E.W. Scripps Co. is headed back to DirecTV channel lineups across the U.S.
That’s because another bitter re-transmission consent dispute has ended.
DirecTV announced just before 5pm Pacific on Friday (7/10) that it agreed to a new multi-year agreement with Scripps.
The fresh accord immediately returned 54 local broadcast stations owned and operated by Scripps to DIRECTV streaming, satellite, and U-verse customers, ending a five-week blackout affecting millions of customers across 36 Nielsen DMAs, including Baltimore, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, Detroit, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Milwaukee, Nashville, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Tampa-St. Petersburg, West Palm Beach and other locales.
A statement from Scripps was received by RBR+TVBR on Friday evening.
“We can confirm all Scripps stations are now again available to DirecTV subscribers,” it reads. “We thank our viewers for their patience and look forward to continuing to serve them on DirecTV platforms with the essential local news, weather, sports and entertainment programming we know they value.”
By Monday afternoon, a new spin was placed on the impasse’s resolution by Scripps, noting that the company had completed “its three largest cable and satellite distribution renewals of 2026” while briefly acknowledging the five-week blockage of its channels by law to all DirecTV subscribers.
“These agreements recognize the enduring value of local television stations as essential infrastructure for American communities,” said Adam Symson, Scripps’ President/CEO. “Fair compensation from distribution partners ensures we can sustain these essential public services for millions of Americans who depend on us for accessible, trusted connection to what matters most in their daily lives.”
Ahead of receiving the brief statement, direct broadcast satellite provider DirecTV had plenty to say about the new deal.
“We’re grateful to our customers for their patience,” said Rob Thun, chief content officer at DirecTV and a vociferous foe of the current retransmission fee dynamic. “Like them, we are frustrated that broadcasters use blackouts as a tool to force us to accept unwarranted rate hikes that consistently exceed normal, inflationary increases, and by a lot. At a time when affordability matters more than ever, families are too often asked to pay more while receiving less.
“Local broadcasters were entrusted with serving their communities through local news, weather, emergency information, and hometown sports,” Thun added. “But as ownership becomes concentrated among a handful of ever-larger broadcasters gaining stations across new and within their existing markets, those expanded stations become increasingly powerful and further unbalanced negotiating tools. The more markets and major network affiliations a broadcaster controls, the greater its ability to withhold programming from the very communities it is meant to serve.
“Consumers should never lose access to essential local television because of a carriage dispute. It’s time to modernize the system so it rewards service to local communities—and not consolidated market power—by returning to the original purpose of broadcasting of putting viewers’ interests first,” Thun concluded.
Meanwhile, there are rumblings that Dish, which just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, is in the midst of testy negotiations with Scripps on a fresh retransmission agreement.
— With reporting by Adam R Jacobson in Boca Raton, Fla., and RBR+TVBR correspondents in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
