A channel blackout on DirecTV involving two broadcasters managed by Nexstar Media Group continued this week, as the satellite TV provider urged Mission Broadcasting and White Knight Broadcasting to restore local stations through the 2022 midterm elections.
Last Friday, 25 Mission Broadcasting stations went dark on DirecTV in 21 markets, as well as DirecTV Stream and U-Verse, as the parties failed to reach a retransmission consent agreement. Earlier in the month on October 7 two local stations, including NBC affiliates and Fox affiliates, from White Knight Broadcasting were pulled amid a retransmission consent negotiation dispute.
On Wednesday DirecTV urged the broadcasters, which are managed and controlled by Nexstar, to restore the 27 channels to customers in 25 Nielsen DMAs, through at least the final results of the November 8 midterm elections. DirecTV cited public interest for reinstating the channels, asserting Mission and White Knight are not allowing access to important political conversation ahead of the mid-terms. Combined with a separate Nexstar dispute with Verizon, the outages impact an estimated 4 million homes across the U.S.
The satellite TV provider said it has a standing offer to both Mission and White Knight.
“In return, DirecTV will pay Mission and White Knight whatever higher retransmission consent rates the parties eventually agree upon retroactively to the date the signals are reinstated,” DirecTV stated.
“This is a critical time in American political life. We are less than two weeks from one of the most important Congressional midterm elections in American History, and gubernatorial elections in 36 states. The results of this midterm will have a profound impact on some of the most important political, public health and economic issues of our time,” DirecTV continued.
Based on S&P Market Intelligence estimates, the retrans disruption between Mission, White Knight and DirecTV, U-Verse represents 1.3 million or 13.5% of the combined total multichannel video subscribers in those 28 TV markets, per Justin Nielson, principal analyst at S&P’s media research group Kagan.
Nielson estimates a prolonged disruption could have up to a nearly $95 million financial impact annually based on retrans fees.
“Using an average of $4.25 to $6.25 per sub per month in retrans fees, a prolonged disruption for Mission, White Knight TV stations overlapping DirecTV, U-Verse video subs could have a financial impact of $64.3 million to $94.6 million annually,” Nielson told Fierce Video via email. “S&P estimates total 2022 gross retrans revenue of $178.1 million for the Mission, White Knight TV stations in those 28 overlapping DirecTV, U-Verse video markets, which includes virtual multichannel carriage fees such as DirecTV Stream.”
The spat with DirecTV marks another dispute for Nexstar and pay TV providers in October. Verizon and Nexstar also failed to agree on retransmission consent fees, resulting in the black out of 14 stations including local broadcast and national news service NewsNation on Fios systems since October 14.
In an October 13 research note Nielson said there could be implications for Nexstar beyond retrans revenue, pointing to pumped up ad spend ahead of the election.
“On the advertising side, a potential retrans disruption for Nexstar only a few weeks away from the 2022 midterm election day on Nov. 8 could adversely impact the big push of political ad buys,” Nielson wrote. “In addition, its broadcast network affiliation partners might be forced into make-goods or lower ad rates during major sporting events and primetime programming from the loss in audience reach.”
The same holds for the Mission and White Knight/DirecTV dispute, as the timing could put pressure on both parties to come to an agreement with loss of political ad buys, Nielson told Fierce.
“In addition, there are some major sporting events including college football, NFL games, and MLB playoffs that DirecTV, U-Verse subs are unable to watch and the TV stations, networks are losing out on those local, national ad buys,” Nielson said via email.
In DirecTV’s push for Mission and White Knight to restore channels, the pay TV provider pointed to an earlier dispute between Mission and Dish Network in 2020 that saw channels temporarily returned in March to keep citizens informed as the global COVID-19 pandemic unfolded.
Third paragraph updated to reflect that the estimated 4 million homes impacted by outages includes those affected by the Nexstar/Verizon dispute.
Article further updated with S&P estimates on revenue and subscriber impacts and comment from Justin Nielson.