AT&T-CBS Blackout Possible; AT&T Says Locast Could Help

AT&T Executive Vice President-Federal Relations Tim McKone warned members of Congress Friday that some of its DirecTV and U-verse subscribers could experience a blackout of their local CBS stations beginning Saturday because of a dispute over retransmission fees. The contract between AT&T and CBS was to expire at 2 a.m. EDT Saturday, meaning CBS-owned stations might have blacked out. The 17 markets that might have been affected were Atlanta; Baltimore; Boston; Chicago; Dallas; Denver; Detroit; Los Angeles; Miami; Minneapolis; New York; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Sacramento; San Francisco; Seattle; and Tampa. “We have offered CBS the highest rate we currently pay any major broadcast network group,” McKone wrote. “We have offered to market CBS All Access to our millions of customers on their behalf. CBS has rejected all these offers. CBS has a history of blacking out their stations to demand severe price increases. They have done this repeatedly to millions of DISH, Charter and other pay-TV subscribers.” McKone said AT&T customers would be able to get access to local CBS stations' content via the Locast app or with a free local channel connector antenna from the provider: "Ultimately, we need to modernize the [1992] Cable Act.” CBS “would like to avoid being dropped, but unless an agreement is reached, our viewers should be prepared” for a blackout, the broadcaster said in a statement. AT&T’s “willingness to deprive its customers of valuable content has become routine over the last few weeks and months, and recent negotiations have regularly resulted in carriage disputes, blackouts and popular channels being removed from their service.” Lawmakers pressed AT&T and Nexstar to resolve a retrans dispute that resulted in blackouts of DirecTV subscribers' access to more than 120 Nexstar-owned stations (see 1907170014).