AT&T Blames Raycom
Reports indicate that the dispute between AT&T and Raycom Media has not yet been solved. The dispute between both the parties resulted in the blackout of CBS affiliate WBTV on AT&T U-Verse.
Reports from several reliable sources claim that the officials from Raycom Media recently declined a call from AT&T U-Verse, in which they asked Raycom to lift the blackout of this channel in Charlotte region. This means that AT&T U-Verse customers will miss more than a few matches of the NCAA Men’s Tournament.
In a recent letter sent to AT&T, the senior vice president of television for Raycom Group, Jeff Rosser, said, “We are not surprised that you wish to attempt to make WBTV and Raycom Media the ‘bad guys’ who you would like to portray as denying your paying customers for such high-demand, and expensive, programming,”
WBTV has gone dark to AT&T U-Verse customers in the Charlotte area for about eight days and both parties have blamed one another for the blackout of the channel. In a statement, the officials from Raycom stated that they had agreed to keep their stations on AT&T U-Verse until March 15, 2017. Raycom Media is actually negotiating on behalf of all their stations in 23 cities across the country.
Raycom said, “You are deceptively seeking public sympathy and support as you attempt to negotiate through the press. By singling out only one of the many Raycom TV stations whose viewers are suffering equally from this unfortunate impasse. Our mutually expired agreement was between all of Raycom Media and all of AT&T U-verse, and any new agreement will be the same.”
AT&T U-Verse Customers
On the other hand, AT&T stated that it was entirely up to Raycom Media to decide whether WBTV appears on AT&T U-Verse during the negotiation between the parties. The communications director of AT&T U-Verse in Charlotte, Josh Gelinas said, “We have asked Raycom numerous times to leave WBTV up, and once they took that station away, to put it back.”
He added, “We have offered to compensate Raycom – even when out of contract for events like Friday’s Tar Heels game. Our challenge to Raycom stands put WBTV back on and we will compensate you while we work privately to settle this issue.”
However, if you have subscribed to any one of the fastest internet providers in the country, then you will be able to watch the NCAA games over the internet. If you don’t have an internet service connection, then subscribe to AT&T internet, as they offer some of the best internet deals to their customers.
