NEW YORK—A New York State court has issued a judgement ordering Nexstar Media Group to pay $26.6 million to DirecTV. The judgement came in a case where DirecTV successfully argued that Nexstar had fraudulently collected retransmission fees for a Maryland station owned by Nexstar.
In the suit, DirecTV said that it had been paying retransmission feeds for WHAG in Hagerstown Maryland based on WHAG’s NBC affiliation. In July 2024 a New York State Court ruled in DirecTV's favor, finding that Nexstar fraudulently collected $10.5 million in retransmission fees from DirecTV.
Nexstar appealed that ruling. In August, 2024, the Supreme Court of the State of New York Appellate Division in the First Judicial Department ruled against Nexstar's appeal .
In an order, the appeals court noted that "WHAG lost its NBC affiliation on July 1, 2016, approximately one year into the agreement’s three-year term, and defendant later changed WHAG’s call sign and rebranded the station. However, defendant did not inform plaintiff that WHAG had lost its affiliation and continued to collect more than $10.5 million in Unlaunched Station Fees pertaining to WHAG for the remainder of the agreement’s term. When plaintiff discovered that WHAG had become an independent station, it informed defendant that it would no longer pay the Unlaunched Station Fee and asked defendant to return the Unlaunched Station Fees that it had paid following the loss of WHAG’s NBC affiliation. Defendant refused, and plaintiff stopped paying the Unlaunched Station Fees.”
The Feb. 19 2025 judgment awarded $26.6 million to DirecTV. The award consists of amounts DirecTV overpaid Nexstar for retransmission consent for WHAG between the time DirecTV the then-affiliate in the Washington, D.C., market, in 2015 and Nexstar’s losing that NBC affiliation in February 2016 (plus interest). (NBC is the longtime owner of its Washington affiliate, WRC.)
In the case, DirecTV said Nexstar knew of the pending loss of its NBC affiliation during retransmission consent negotiations but failed to disclose it.
The judgment issued by the Supreme Court of the State of New York, which is a lower court in the state’s court system, said that the parties had agreed on the amount of $26.6 million as covering all damages and costs in the action.
The judgment also noted that Nexstar has the right to appeal.
After being asked to comment on the case, Nexstar told TV Tech it would be further appealing the judgment.
