It looks as though DirecTV subscribers in Northwest Broadcasting markets will be able to watch the Super Bowl from home after the two companies, feuding over retransmission consent payments for over a month, agreed to turn the stations back on for affected viewers for four weeks.
"We're happy that Northwest granted our request to put the channels back on while we negotiate a deal," said Dan Hartman, senior v.p. of programming at DirecTV in a statement. "The channels have now been restored and we are looking forward to getting a deal done as quickly as we can."
In a letter, Brady pushed his DirecTV counterpart, president and CEO Michael D. White, for a "substantive one-on-one negotiating discussion with me at any time before the close of business on Friday, February 11," so the feuding parties could work out a deal "to the mutual benefit of our viewers, advertisers, communities and employees."
Northwest's KAYU Spokane, WICZ-WBPN Binghamton (N.Y.) , KMVU Medford (Ore.) and KFFX Yakima went dark for DirecTV subscribers at the stroke of the new year.
Brady also urged White to drop the satellite provider's "outrageous" early termination fees for subscribers who have dropped the service due to the stalemate, and to not import the signals of distant Fox stations into the affected markets.
