DirecTV announced a “new feature” over the weekend that will allow its subscribers to opt out of their local stations in return for a discount. Customers who choose the “No Locals” option will get $12 lopped off of their monthly plans.
DirecTV, which, like most pay-TV providers has a long history of retrans battles with station groups, has hinted at offering this option for awhile, saying last November that “creating a Pay TV a la carte model for local broadcast stations would return choice, control and value to consumers with broadcasters came out swinging against local TV stations in their announcement.”
“Consumers have been voting with their wallets for years that pay TV—as currently constructed—is too expensive and restricts their choices,” said Rob Thun, DirecTV chief content officer said in its announcement. “Our new ‘No Locals’ package enables customers to take an important step forward in culling out certain types of content they may no longer care to watch and better balance the price they are willing to pay.”
DirecTV said that “customers who want to access the programs that make up their local station lineups typically have several options available to them today, including national network and local station websites, subscription streaming services that are often cheaper than local station fees, and more powerful over-the-air digital broadcast antennas.”
“Interested customers can take this new feature for a test drive starting today and use it to opt out of their usual local station access during non-peak programming months – like the summer – and then resume in the fall or whenever they choose,” the company added.
DirecTV also took potshots at the quality of networking programming as well.
“National broadcast network content has suffered a more than 40% decline in viewership since 2015, according to Nielsen Media Research,’ the company said. “The major studios that own the national broadcast networks keep shifting top series producers and most buzzed about scripted shows that had bolstered local stations’ primetime lineups over to their streaming services instead.
“That trend continues to diminish the quantity and quality of scripted entertainment on these same local stations, as the major broadcast networks’ collective share of Emmy nominations has plummeted 55% since 2014,” DirecTV added. “In the most recent 75th Emmy Awards, for instance, the only broadcast network representation in any key series or acting categories was ABC’s Abbott Elementary, while ABC sibling FX on Hulu’s The Bear swept the top awards against an Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Max, and Netflix-heavy field.”
