AT&T and Nexstar have finally ended their dispute.
Both companies have now issued statements confirming a deal has been agreed. Those announcement also confirm affected channels will be returning to the DIRECTV, AT&T TV and U-verse platforms
This marks the end of an AT&T and Nexstar dispute that has gone on since early July.
Both companies state they “regret the inconvenience incurred by customers, viewers and advertisers” and thank them for their patience.
A return of Nexstar locals TO AT&T
If many were unaware of who Nexstar was before this blackout, they now know. Nexstar owns the rights to a number of local channels, in a number of markets in the U.S. It was this that the companies were arguing over with AT&T suggesting Nexstar wanted too much money for channels that can be accessed for free via other mans.
AT&T went as far as to say “more money” for the same access had been offered, but Nexstar refused. In contrast, Nexstar said it was only asking for AT&T to pay the same rates everyone else does. That it was AT&T who was refusing to fall in line.
As is usually the case with these situations, neither company has disclosed the terms of the deal. However, Nexstar has confirmed the deal struck is a multi-year agreement covering 97 markets in the U.S.
CBS should be back for more people now
The timing of this dispute was interesting as it occurred almost simultaneously as a separate dispute with CBS.
Unlike the CBS deal which came to a head fairly quickly with new terms agreed between the two, the dispute with Nexstar has dragged on. At one point during the height of both disputes, AT&T’s Randall Stephenson suggested it was likely to drag on even further. With Stephenson explaining the the two companies were too far apart on their valuation of Nexstar’s contribution.
However, the issue AT&T had was again CBS. Although AT&T and CBS agreed terms which saw the return of CBS channels to AT&T’s video platforms, that wasn’t the case for all of AT&T’s video customers.
This was due to Nexstar owning the rights to CBS affiliate channels in many locations. As that dispute was still ongoing, the blackout for those particular CBS channels remained in effect.
Now that the deal has been done, it should bring an end to that situation and see the select CBS channels that remained blacked out, returning to life.
In addition to the wide selection of affiliate and local channels provided by Nexstar in general.