DirecTV and Hearst Reach New Programming Fee Agreement

DirecTV narrowly avoided a blackout of Hearst Corp. network TV stations that would have occurred had their fee deal been allowed to expire at midnight Friday, December 31. Yahoo News reports the two parties reached a new agreement over the fees DirecTV must pay to carry Hearst stations in its lineup last Wednesday.

Terms of the deal have not been disclosed, and DirecTV would not say how many of its nineteen million subscribers would have been affected had a new fee agreement not been reached, but Hearst owns 29 local network stations in markets including Boston, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore and has CBS, ABC, and NBC affiliates.

It is becoming much more common for these fee agreement negotiations to come down to the wire as they become more contentious. Fortunately there was no interruption in service for any DirecTV customers this time.