As Nexstar Media Group’s contract negotiations deadline with Verizon Fios TV nears, the American Television Alliance blasted the affiliate company for using a threatened blackout as “deal leverage.”
“As families and friends gather to watch Sunday Football, Big Broadcasters are preparing to pull the plug on thousands of pay-TV customers. Rather than watching local news, sports and weather, consumers may soon see a black screen,” ATVA spokesman Hunter Wilson said in a statement Tuesday. “Nexstar Media Group is currently demanding exorbitant retransmission consent fee hikes, using a potential television blackout as ‘deal leverage.’ Clearly, they are more interested in extracting huge profits from pay-TV consumers than giving people the programming they’re already paying for.”
The advocacy group’s statement comes as Nexstar’s contract with Verizon is due to expire Friday. Verizon said Tuesday that the companies could not align on price increases Nexstar demanded during their ongoing negotiations.
A blackout would impact an estimated 2.6 million Verizon customers across 10 markets in Providence, Rhode Island; Albany, Buffalo, Syracuse and New York City in New York; Harrisburg and Philadelphia in Pennsylvania; Washington, D.C. and Richmond and Norfolk in Virginia. The exact channels affected are:
- WAVY (Norfolk): NBC, The Nest, getTV, Defy TV
- WDCW (D.C.): CW, Antenna TV
- WDVM (D.C.): DC News Now, ION Mystery, Rewind TV, ShopLC
- WHTM (Harrisburg): ABC, Grit, Laff
- WIVB (Buffalo): CBS
- WNLO (Buffalo): CW, Rewind TV
- WPHL (Philadelphia): CW, Antenna TV/MyNetwork, Grit, Comet
- WPIX (New York): CW, Antenna TV, Rewind TV
- WPRI (Providence): CBS, MyNetwork, True Crime Network, Defy TV
- WRIC (Richmond): ABC, Rewind TV, COZI TV, Laff
- WSYR (Syracuse): ABC, Antenna TV, Bounce TV
- WTEN (Albany): ABC, COZI TV, Antenna TV, ION Mystery
- WTNH (Greenwich): ABC
- WVBT (Norfolk): FOX, CW, Rewind TV, COZI TV
- NewsNation
Verizon said Tuesday that while they “are currently in negotiations to reach a fair and reasonable agreement” with Nexstar to continue offering the above channels, they could not agree to the rising price asks Nexstar was looking for and some of their customers could lose coverage. That said, the blackout would not be especially widespread impacted markets largely because Verizon has stopped marketing its Fios TV service amid the rise of YouTube TV.
“Unfortunately, we simply cannot agree to the significant price increases they have asked for to date,” Verizon said of Nexstar in their Tuesday statement. “In the event we are unable to reach an agreement by Oct. 24, you may lose access to these channels on Fios TV. The rising cost of programming is the single biggest factor in higher TV bills and we are fighting to keep prices reasonable for you.”
The Verizon negotiations come just weeks after Nexstar previously made headlines for pulling “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” off of its affiliate stations in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination — a decision it restored on Sept. 26.
“We can confirm our distribution agreement with Verizon is expiring soon,” Gary Weitman, EVP and Chief Communications Officer for Nexstar said in a statement. “We are in active discussions on a new agreement.”
