Millions of DirecTV customers lost access to Nexstar Media Group channels after the two companies failed to agree to a new distribution contract by a Sunday night deadline.
The nationwide blackout of 159 Nexstar-owned stations — including ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and CW network affiliates — began Sunday at 4 p.m. Pacific, the two companies said. The cable news network NewsNation was also part of the outage as well as about 30 stations that Nexstar manages, but are owned by Mission Broadcasting and White Knight Broadcasting.
The impasse occurred after weeks of negotiations. DirecTV proposed a contract extension, but Nexstar declined. The station-owner then offered to extend the contract to Oct. 31, according to a Nexstar spokesman, but DirecTV didn't want to subject its customers to a possible blackout when the NFL and college football seasons were in full swing, according to a DirecTV spokesman.
