Tribune Co., DirecTV Hug It Out
By Chuck Sudo in News on Apr 5, 2012 2:05PM
DirecTV subscribers who rely on Tribune Co. local television stations aired on the satellite service to get their baseball fix breathed a sigh of relief late last night as the two sides reached an agreement that brought those stations and national cable network WGN America back on air.
Tribune Co. programming had been pulled from DirecTV's service for four days after the two sides couldn't reach an agreement on retransmission fees, which led to each side accusing the other of strong arm tactics. The Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992 allows broadcasters the right to seek retransmission fees, although most used the act to leverage that right into new cable channels. Retransmission fees typically run from pennies to a dollar, depending on the network.
DirecTV has paid retransmission fees for WGN America, but not Tribune Co.'s local programming. Tribune Broadcasting president Nils Larsen said he was happy an agreement was reached in time for Chicago Cubs fans to be able to watch their team on Opening Day.
"On behalf of Tribune Broadcasting, I want to thank viewers across all of our markets for their support, understanding and patience during the negotiating process. We truly regret the service interruptions of the last several days."
DirecTV's executive vice president of content, strategy and development, Derek Chang, also expressed relief the two sides reached a deal, yet still managed to get a dig in on Tribune in the process.
"It's unfortunate that Tribune was willing to hold our customers hostage in an attempt to extract excessive rates, but in the end we reached a fair deal at market rates similar to what we originally agreed to on March 29. On behalf of our customers, we are very happy to close the deal and put this behind us."
Tribune Co., through its multiple media platforms, said it was seeking retransmission fees of "less than a penny a day per subscriber" in exchange for DirecTV to carry the company's local stations. DirecTV filed a complaint with the FCC Monday over the loss of Tribune Co. programming.
The two sides agreed on a five-year deal. terms of the new contract were not disclosed.