CBS Dropped by DIRECTV NOW In All Markets, DirecTV & AT&T U-Verse in Major Cities

As expected, AT&T and CBS were unable to come to terms on a new carriage deal by the 11pm PT deadline last night. However, in a surprise to DIRECTV NOW customers — CBS been removed in all markets — those with with CBS-owned affiliates, as well as the 117 CBS stations and affiliates that were available on the service.

Fortunately, customers still can get their live local CBS station if they sign-up CBS All Access which is $5.99 a month after 7-Day Free Trial, or any of the other Live TV Streaming Services like fuboTV, PlayStation Vue, and Hulu Live TV.

For those with DirecTV and AT&T U-Verse, the 17 markets affected include: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta, Tampa, Seattle, Detroit, Minneapolis, Miami, Denver, Sacramento, Pittsburgh and Baltimore. It is expected to affect 6.5 million customers across the different services.

Additionally, CBS Sports Network has been dropped from DirecTV and legacy DIRECTV NOW subscribers, while Smithsonian Channel has has been removed from DirecTV.

DirecTV and AT&T U-verse TV customers: DirecTV and AT&T U-verse TV have dropped CBS. Visit https://t.co/eM7iQynZ8X to find alternative viewing options and call 1-855-5-KEEP-CBS to tell DirecTV and AT&T U-verse TV to bring back CBS.

— CBS (@CBS) July 20, 2019

CBS said that they “granted an extension of its current deal with AT&T earlier this month in order to try to reach an agreement without consumers being put in the middle. We also offered a 30-day extension yesterday to work towards a fair deal for all parties – most importantly, our loyal viewers – but AT&T declined that additional extension.”

In a statement, AT&T claims that they “have offered to pay CBS an unprecedented rate increase and the highest fee we currently pay to any major broadcast network group. CBS has refused. We also asked CBS to allow us to sell its CBS All Access streaming service.”

The latest dispute comes just weeks after Nexstar, the largest local affiliate owner, had their channels removed from DirecTV, DIRECTV NOW, and AT&T U-Verse.

This is the fifth major carriage dispute for AT&T in as many months — including with smaller station owners Northwest Broadcasting, Deerfield Media, Roberts Media, Second Generation of Iowa, GoCom Media, MPS Media, Howard Stirk Holding, and Waitt Broadcasting. The service recently renegotiated deals with Viacom and A+E, while dropping NFL Network

It is unlikely that the channels would disappear forever, but it is not unheard for local channel disputes to last multiple months. For many, the hope is that the dispute doesn’t go into NFL and College Football season which starts in September. Last year, PlayStation Vue and Sinclair Media Group were in an extended battle that saw many locals dropped from the service, only to return a few months later.