In a letter to the FCC, DirecTV has accused Nexstar of expanding the blackout of Nexstar stations on DirecTV to include 21 Sinclair-owned CW stations.
Nexstar owns 75% of the CW.
“Nexstar has become the largest broadcast station group by exploiting loopholes in the FCC’s broadcast ownership rules,” DirecTV complained in a letter to the FCC. “By its own account, it serves markets reaching 68 percent of television households—that is, the vast majority of DirecTV’s customers and potential customers. Nexstar recently incited the largest programming blackout in history against DirecTV. Last week, it expanded this blackout to include CW network programming on Sinclair owned and managed local stations on DirecTV’s streaming service. It has, in other words, dragged into its dispute new viewers of a competing broadcaster against their will and regardless of DirecTV’s agreements to serve these viewers.”
“This behavior reveals what is truly motivating affiliates’ calls for regulation of online providers,” the letter continued. “It is not local news; it is their economic position. Broadcast affiliates, including Nexstar, have complained that networks control negotiations with online providers to the detriment of local stations, especially local news. Now that it owns a network, however, Nexstar has done just that—required another broadcaster to black out programming on its local stations notwithstanding agreements that other broadcasters had negotiated. Nexstar’s conduct shows that affiliates’ attempt to regulate online providers has never really been about “preserving local broadcasting” or anything else of the sort. Affiliates simply want the government to give them leverage against the networks.”
“Nexstar is and always has been in full compliance with FCC regulations, and the allegations raised by DirecTV in its recent filing are without merit," Nexstar said in a statement responding to the letter.
The letter is part of ongoing bitter legal and regulatory disputes between DirecTV and Nexstar that includes the recent blackout of its stations on DirecTV platforms, lawsuits and a informal complaint DirecTV made with the FCC against Nexstar.
It also highlights ongoing disputes over retransmission consent rules, which DirecTV called “dysfunctional” in the June 18 letter and efforts by members of Congress, and broadcasters, including the NAB and a new group launched this week called “The Coalition for Local News”, to change the way station groups negotiate carriage with virtual VMPDs like DirecTV Stream.
In the FCC letter, DirecTV noted that "DirecTV carries 21 CW-affiliated stations owned or managed by Sinclair Broadcast Group pursuant to retransmission consent agreements (in the case of its satellite service) and copyright license agreements (in the case of its streaming service) it has negotiated with Sinclair. On July 11, Sinclair told DirecTV that these stations are no longer authorized to provide CW network content to DirecTV’s streaming service because Nexstar had withdrawn Sinclair’s rights to do so. Sinclair thus required DirecTV to black out this programming from its streaming service, and DirecTV complied with this directive beginning on July 12."
