CBS Says DirecTV, AT&T U-Verse Customers May Lose Access to Programming

   By Stephen Nakrosis 
 

CBS Corp. (CBS) said on Tuesday that viewers could lose access on DirecTV and AT&T U-verse TV if negotiations with AT&T fail to produce a new agreement.

The company said CBS-owned television stations in a number of cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco and Boston, could be blacked out from these services. Customers of DirecTV also could lose programming from the CBS Television Network as well.

According to CBS, AT&T "continues to propose unfair terms well below those agreed to by its competitors and may drop CBS unless we agree to those terms."

A statement from AT&T said, "We want the CBS owned-and-operated and Nexstar local stations in our lineups," adding, "Broadcast stations are the incumbents to our industry, and many feel they deserve certain entitlements. They continue to give their signals away for free but also demand unsustainably growing fees for allowing customers the convenience of receiving their channels in a usual program guide or without switching an input." AT&T also said, "Fans of stations affected by any CBS or Nexstar blackout can watch over the air, at the station websites, often at CBS.com or other network websites, and typically using the CBS and other Big Four network mobile apps."

--Write to Stephen Nakrosis at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 16, 2019 16:43 ET (20:43 GMT)

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