Tegna’s stations have returned to DirecTV and AT&T U-verse after a retransmission consent dispute that resulted in the stations being removed for six weeks.
The two companies said in a brief statement on Saturday, January 13, that they had reached a new multi-year distribution agreement covering 64 Tegna stations in 51 markets. Programming resumed at the beginning of a holiday weekend that included NFL playoff games on all four major networks.
Tegna stations include NBC affiliate KARE/11 (Minneapolis), ABC affiliates WOI-DT/5 (Ames-Des Moines) and WQAD/8 (Moline-Quad Cities), and CW affiliate KCWI/23 (Ames-Des Moines).
“DIRECTV and TEGNA greatly appreciate the patience of their subscribers and viewers,” the statement read.
Terms of the agreement were not released.
In a news release issued when the dispute began, DirecTV had said Tegna was seeking a rate increases “that would make it the most expensive broadcaster nationwide.”
Meanwhile, Tegna had said it was seeking “fair compensation” and said DirecTV was misleading customers about big fee increases leading to higher bills. The statement has since been removed.
The outage came exactly three years after a similar dispute led to a three-week Tegna-DirecTV blackout.
Des Moines and the Quad Cities are among 11 Upper Midwest markets that have were affected by previous retransmission consent disputes in 2023.
This item was originally posted on Nov. 30, 2023 and was updated on Jan. 15, 2024.
Disclosure: Jon Ellis was an employee of Gray Media Group at the time this item was posted. The statements and views expressed in this posting are his own and do not reflect those of Gray Media Group.