In the first major carriage dispute for the Live TV Streaming Service, Hulu + Live TV has lost Nexstar ABC affiliates on the service. The dispute affects 20+ Nexstar-owned ABC affiliates across the country including in Nashville (WKRN), Hartford (WTNH), Grand Rapids (WOTV), Harrisburg (WHTM), New Orleans (WGNO), and Richmond (WRIC) - a full list is below.
Last week, Nexstar ABC affiliates began alerting customers on their airwaves that a carriage dispute was pending. The agreement between Nexstar and Hulu expired at midnight.
Fortunately, in those markets, Hulu has replaced the local affiliate with a national ABC feed. So while you’ll lose local news and syndicated shows, you will still get primetime programming and live national sports like college football.
In an email to Hulu customers, the company said:
We wanted to let you know as soon as we could that, as of today (10/16/2020), Hulu no longer has the rights to distribute the local ABC affiliate that was previously included with your Live TV plan. However, we’re going to continue giving you access to live ABC network programming.
You may start to notice some change — including your local news and syndicated programs on ABC are no longer available — but you’ll still be able to keep up with primetime shows, sports, and more.
Gary Weitman, the Chief Communications Officer at Nexstar told The Streamable, “We want to reach an agreement with Hulu for our ABC-affiliated television stations, just as we have with our other streaming, cable, satellite, and telco partners. Unfortunately, Hulu has rejected our offer outright, and failed to provide alternatives or even to negotiate with us. As a result, Hulu’s subscribers will go without the award-winning local news, weather and sports provided by Nexstar’s ABC-affiliated television stations.”
This isn’t Nexstar’s only carriage dispute with a Live TV Streaming Service. Nexstar-owned CBS affiliates were dropped from fuboTV at the beginning of September and have not yet returned.
Last year, Nexstar had a 2 month feud with AT&T which saw all affiliates disappear from AT&T TV NOW and DirecTV.
Impacted Nexstar ABC Affiliates
- WKRN - Nashville, TN
- KTVX - Salt Lake City, UT
- WTNH - Hartford & New Haven, CT
- WOTV - Grand Rapids, MI
- WHTM - Harrisburg, PA
- WGNO - New Orleans, LA
- WRIC - Richmond-Petersburg, VA
- WTEN - Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY
- WATE - Knoxville, TN
- WSYR - Syracuse, NY
- WJHL - Tri-Cities, TN-VA
- WEHT - Evansville, IN
- WJBF - Augusta-Aiken, GA
- KMID - Odessa-Midland, TX
- KCAU - Sioux City, IA
- WJET - Erie, PA
- WMBB - Panama City, FL
- WTRF - Wheeling-Steubenville, OH
- WIVT - Binghamton, NY
- KSVI - Billings, MT
- WBOY - Clarksburg-Weston, WV
- WDHN - Dothan, AL
- WWTI - Watertown, NY