facebook-pixel

KTVX-Channel 4 and KUCW-Channel 30 are back on DirecTV

Nexstar and the satellite TV provider finally reach an agreement.

(Nexstar Media Group) The nation's largest owner of local TV stations has reached an agreement with DirecTV.

  | Sep. 18, 2023, 2:20 p.m.
| Updated: 3:26 p.m.

Utahns who subscribe to DirecTV can once again tune in to Channel 4 and Channel 30 after their parent company announced Monday morning that they’d reached an agreement in their battle with the satellite TV provider.

“DirecTV and Nexstar greatly appreciate the patience of their subscribers and viewers during this negotiation,” according to a statement two companies — although there’s no evidence that customers were patient.

(Courtesy DirecTV) DirecTV ended a dispute with the Nexstar Media Group, which owns both KTVX-Channel 4 and KUCW-Channel 30 in Utah.

Nexstar’s local channels — along with cable channel NewsNation — actually returned to DirecTV on Sunday, when the two companies announced they were “temporarily” restoring the channels while they continued to negotiate.

Terms of the agreements announced Monday were not disclosed, only that it is a “multi-year” agreement.

ABC affiliate KTVX and The CW affiliate KUCW have been off DirecTV for a month-and-a-half while the two sides battled over money. In early July, DirecTV asserted that Nexstar was demanding “more than double the previous amount for the same content,” and that would “pass on additional costs to viewers.” DirecTV also argued that Nexstar’s stations — including Channel 4 and Channel 30 in Utah — have become “less valuable” because combined network ratings are down 46% in total viewers since 2010, and the major networks have moved “live sports and other popular programs online.”

Utahns who subscribe to DirecTV were, however, unable to access NFL and college football on KTVX and KUCW in recent weeks through their satellite TV connections.

Nexstar — the nation’s largest owner/operator of local TV stations, with about 200 — said it has offered “the same fair market rates it offered to other distribution partners with whom it completed successful negotiations in the past year” for its “highly-rated programming.”

Since legislation that went into effect in 1992, cable and satellite providers have been required to obtain the permission — retransmission consent — of broadcast stations to carry their signals. That permission generally comes after the satellite/cable company agrees to pay for it.