When will CBS Corporation-owned TV stations return to DirecTV, DirecTV NOW or AT&T U-Verse?
It could be sooner than when Nexstar Media Group stations — including many CBS affiliates — return by way of a freshly minted retransmission consent agreement, AT&T head Randall Stephenson hinted during his company’s Q2 earnings call for investors on Wednesday.
That said, Stephenson joked that he’s heard “crickets” from CBS regarding a new retrans deal.
It could be because CBS was busy sending out a communique with “some facts regarding the current situation.”
Noting that AT&T is “blacking out” all CBS O&Os (it must, by law, in the absence of a retansmission consent agreement), CBS noted that its programming is available via CBS.com and from CBS All Access, which saw “a dramatic spike” in new subscribers this past weekend compared to the same weekend a year ago.
Meanwhile, RBR+TVBR has confirmed that the national DirecTV feeds for the East Coast and West Coast have substituted WCBS-2 in New York and KCBS-2 in Los Angeles for TEGNA-owned stations.
In place of WCBS-2 is WUSA-9 in Washington, D.C. Rather than receiving KCBS-2, DirecTV is offering KFMB-8 in San Diego.
These feeds are the ones offered to RVs, airlines and in markets covered under STELAR authorization; STELAR, which the NAB wants Congress to “sunsets,” allows DMAs with no local network affiliate to use a New York or L.A.-based station to deliver network programming to local customers.
The loss of CBS O&Os could go on for weeks, or even months. That will upset NFL fans, with regional pre-season action set to begin August 8.
The latter may be more accurate, given what CBS sent out as “facts” on Wednesday.
First, it notes that AT&T has dropped 178 stations in more than 120 markets across 14 programmers in 2019 alone.
In contrast, during the seven-year term of its recently expired deal with DirecTV, “CBS successfully reached more than 300 retransmission consent deals with over 145 other partners. In fact, CBS has only gone dark with two providers in its history before AT&T.”
Second, “CBS is seeking fair market value.”
According to “three people familiar with the matter” who spoke with a reporter at The New York Times, AT&T has been paying CBS an average of a little more than $2 for each subscriber every month. The new agreement CBS wanted saw monthly payments of roughly $3 per subscriber from AT&T.
Third, CBS says it “remains ready and available to negotiate and as of today its offer of an unconditional 30-day extension still stands.”
At the Closing Bell on Wednesday, CBS Corp. shares were up 2.5%, to $51.31.
