LOS ANGELES, CA — Viewers across 97 markets woke up on the Fourth of July to discover their local TV news stations blocked as a result of a feud between two providers.

A contract dispute between AT&T and Nexstar culminated with a blackout that took effect at midnight Thursday morning, leaving nearly 100 markets without their local ABC, CBS, FOX, or NBC affiliate stations. The dispute has been brewing for weeks, and both sides spent the Fourth of July holiday jockeying for leverage in the battle of public perception. Each side blamed the other for the blackout affecting DIRECTV NOW, DIRECTV, and U-Verse TV customers.
AT&T hit first.

“We had hoped to prevent Nexstar from removing its stations from your TV channel lineup. We even offered Nexstar more money to keep their stations available. However, Nexstar simply said no and chose to remove them instead,” the company said in an issued statement. “By doing so, Nexstar has put you in the center of its negotiations…The four major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC) have together lost about half their primetime audience over the past few years. Despite this, Nexstar is demanding the largest increase that AT&T has ever seen from any content provider.”

Nexstar hit back.

In a release published on Business Wire, Nexstar accused AT&T of holding customers hostage, alleging the company routinely resorts to such tactics.

“The development is highly unusual for Nexstar but far more common for DIRECTV/AT&T. Nexstar has established a long-term record of completing hundreds of agreements with multichannel video programming distributors (“MVPDs” or cable TV, satellite TV, telecom companies) for the carriage of its television stations and is proud that it has never in its 23-year history had a service interruption related to distribution agreements of the magnitude of the AT&T/DIRECTV interruption,” the company said. “In contrast, DIRECTV is routinely involved in disputes with content providers and following its 2015 acquisition by AT&T has dropped or threatened to black out network and local community programming from DISH Network, Viacom, SJL Broadcasting/Lilly Broadcasting, and others.”

Nexstar went on to offer a minute-by-minute account of its negotiations with AT&T, alleging the company negotiated in bad faith.

The Nexstar Media Group, one of the nation’s largest local TV station operators, reaches nearly 40 percent of the nation’s households.

Neither side offered a timetable for when local programming might return for DIRECTV NOW, DIRECTV, and U-Verse TV customers.

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