DirecTV said it would be allowing customers to opt out of receiving their local TV stations, and pay a lower monthly rate in the bargain.
Customers who opt out of receiving local stations directly through DirecTV will receive discounts of about $140 a year or $12 a month, the pay-TV provider said.
“Consumers have been voting with their wallets for years that pay TV — as currently constructed — is too expensive and restricts their choices,” DirecTV chief content officer Rob Thun said. “Our new ‘No Locals’ package enables customers to take an important step forward in culling out certain types of content they may no longer care to watch and better balance the price they are willing to pay.”
DirecTV’s announcement comes after a long retransmission-consent fight with Tegna. During that dispute, DirecTV suggested an arrangement based on getting programming directly from the broadcast networks and offering local stations on an a la carte basis. In a release outlining the new option, DirecTV said customers might want to drop their local channels "during non-peak programming months -- like the summer -- then resume in the fall or whenever they choose."
The owners of the broadcast networks also own many broadcast television stations, which might pose a problem for DirecTV in implementing this plan.
