DirecTV customers lost access to WVEC-TV in another media money battle

‘Tis the season for media conglomerates to tussle, apparently.

Dish Network customers aren’t the only ones to find blacked-out screens when clicking over to local content. Due to yet another fight over financial matters, Hampton Roads DirecTV customers can’t tune into WVEC-TV for the time being.

The satellite television carrier said a disagreement with WVEC’s owners, Tegna, is to blame.

“We’re working to return the TEGNA stations to our lineups as soon as possible, but by law, TEGNA has exclusive control over which homes are allowed to receive either ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, or CW in certain cities, regardless of what provider they choose,” a statement from DirecTV’s owner, AT&T, reads.

In the statement, AT&T claimed Tegna is using the blackouts as leverage to raise the rates that satellite and cable companies must pay, which in turn increases subscription prices for their customers.

In an email, Tegna’s Chief Communications Officer Anne Bentley provided the following statement on behalf of the media company:

“We have been and remain dedicated to working around-the-clock to reach a fair, market-based agreement. We have made clear that we are prepared to reach a deal at rates that are competitive with the rates that we have agreed to with operators of all sizes over the past fourteen months. If AT&T is now willing to begin good faith discussions, we are confident we can get a deal done quickly.”

DirecTV customers can get up-to-date information on the disagreement and channel outages by visiting att.com/tvpromise.

Dish Network customers in Hampton Roads who tried to tune into WAVY-10 or WVBT-43 found the channels had disappeared at 7 p.m. Wednesday just before prime-time programming would begin. Until Dish and Nexstar can agree on how much the former will pay the latter for its content, Dish customers won’t have access to either channel.

As of publication, negotiations between Dish and Nexstar remained stagnant. Dish customers can get the latest updates at my.dish.com/promise.

Amy Poulter, 757-446-2705, amy.poulter@pilotonline.com