Satellite television provider DirecTV accused Irving’s Nexstar Broadcasting Group, the nation’s largest operator of local TV channels, of fixing prices with competitors White Knight and Mission, causing transmission fees to spike and forcing providers to raise bills for customers.
DirecTV, which is majority owned by Dallas-based AT&T Inc., filed a lawsuit Tuesday in a U.S. District Court in New York, saying the three companies worked together to “manipulate, raise and fix” retransmission consent fees in markets where they all own local affiliates for ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX.
TV providers and station operators across the country have been tangling over broadcast fees as the landscape of the entertainment industry has changed. Streaming services have added competition and regional sports networks are paying bigger sums to air the last bastion of traditional cable and satellite services, live sports. Broadcast networks such as ABC, NBC, FOX and CBS are also key players, not only because they air local television news and network shows, but because they offer live sports on the weekends such as college football and the NFL.
