DIRECTV, DIRECTV STREAM, AT&T U-Verse Customers Can Apply for $10 Credit if Channels Blacked Out by TEGNA Dispute
DIRECTV wants to try to make up for missing channels, and affected customers can sign up for the $10 credit easily.
A weekend has passed, and there has still been no resolution between DIRECTV and TEGNA. A retransmission dispute between the two has blacked out more than 60 TEGNA-owned affiliates of ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC in over 50 American media markets, and even college football conference championship games weren’t enough impetus to drive the two sides to a deal.
- DIRECTV is offering customers of its three TV services a $10 credit off one month of service if one of their local channels has gone dark.
- Some affected customers have also received offers for $25 VISA gift cards.
- The dispute between TEGNA and DIRECTV stems from a disagreement over fees DIRECTV must pay to keep TEGNA-owned stations on the air.
How to Get $10 Credit from DIRECTV
TEGNA-owned channels reach 39% of American households, so it’s hard to claim this retransmission dispute is a small one. DIRECTV clearly understands the scale of the problem, because it’s offering users who are missing a channel because of the dispute a one-time credit off their next month’s bill.
DIRECTV, DIRECTV STREAM, and AT&T U-Verse customers can head to directv.com/tvpromise to claim their credit. All users have to do is enter their zip code, specify which DIRECTV service they have, and confirm that one of their channels is blacked out. Affected users will be given a link to follow, and should use the same email address associated with their DIRECTV account to sign up to receive the credit.
When the dispute first cropped up late last week, some DIRECTV STREAM customers began receiving emails from the company providing for a $25 Visa gift card if they’ve lost channels owned by TEGNA. The offers can be seen as indications that DIRECTV believes the outage may go on for a while, as it offered similar credits to users who lost their Nexstar-owned affiliate stations in a retrans dispute with that broadcaster over the summer, which lasted several months.
How Long will TEGNA-DIRECTV Dispute Last?
It’s hard to say for sure, undoubtedly, many fans are hoping that the dispute between TEGNA and DIRECTV will end before the NFL playoffs begin in January. NFL playoff games are too good of a ratings draw for TEGNA and DIRECTV to stay away from the negotiating table for long, so it’s possible that users will see their channels restored within the next month. However, in speaking with The Streamable last week, DIRECTV’s chief content officer Rob Thun indicated that both sides are so firmly entrenched in their positions, that this might take weeks or months to resolve.
There’s a critical difference between this TEGNA-DIRECTV dispute and the Disney-Spectrum carriage disagreement that erupted earlier this year. In this instance, the owner of blacked-out channels (TEGNA) has no streaming service access to put on the negotiating table, as Disney did; to settle the dispute and secure higher retransmission fees, Disney had to agree to letting Spectrum TV customers have free access to ad-supported Disney+.
If the NFL playoffs don’t bring TEGNA-owned local channels back to DIRECTV customers, the dispute could drag on as long as the 2024 NCAA March Madness tournament, the next ratings blockbuster on the calendar. Customers are hoping it doesn’t take that long, but there has been no reported progress thus far. To help mollify users, DIRECTV is offering those who apply for it a $10 monthly credit off one month’s bill.
DIRECTV STREAM
DIRECTV STREAM is a live TV streaming service, which is essentially the streaming version of the DIRECTV service. All packages include local channels and at least 31 of the top 35 cable channels. New subscribers can get a free Gemini streaming device from the company, in which case the service is called “DIRECTV via Internet.”