Carriage Dispute
There is happy news for the DirecTV customers – they can once again watch WDAY-TV of Fargo and KBMY-TV of Bismarck now. Negotiations were taking place between the satellite TV service provider and broadcast stations WDAY, WDAZ, and KBMY for quite some time now, and it recently reached a signal carriage agreement. This was announced by Forum Communications Co. last week.
DirecTV was not carrying signals from the said tree stations, as the contract to carry the stations expired and a new contract was not made. The dispute was over carriage charges and both the parties were unable to spell out what DirecTV would pay these stations for retransmission of programming. As a result of the dispute, the channels were blocked for DirecTV subscribers last month.
The dispute has ended now with the new signal carriage agreement. However, not all the stations owned by FCC will return, as not all the channels are included in the deal. Mari Ossenfort, vice president of broadcasting for Forum Communications, said that WDAZ-TV of Grand Forks, Justice Network, XTRA, and MYNetwork TV will not be offered on DirecTV packages.
Forum Communications
“Thus WDAZ will only be offered over the air or with a cable provider where they are available,” Ossenfort said in a press release. She added that WDAZ-TV plans to distribute some free antennas to those customers who do not receive these channels on DirecTV packages.
Despite the fact that not all the stations from Forum Communications were included in the agreement, Ossenfort said that they are pleased to have KBMY-TV and WDAY-TV back on DirecTV channel list. “We want to thank our viewers for their patience and their loyalty. We view DIRECTV as a partner of ours, as we do all cable companies and Dish Network,” she said.
Spokesperson for AT&T, Mark Giga, also expressed similar sentiments. “AT&T is pleased that Forum Communications has returned WDAY-ABC and WDAY-CW to our Fargo, Valley City and Grand Forks customers’ homes and appreciate those same families’ patience over these past several weeks,” Giga commented.
