Sunbeam and DirecTV have reached a retrans
agreement that insures, for one thing, that the Super Bowl will not be blacked
out on Sunbeam's Boston NBC affiliate.
The
agreement covers WHDH and WLVI Boston and WSVN Miami and comes after calls from
Massachusetts legislators to the
parties and to the FCC to get a deal done before the big game, which features
the New England Patriots.
"We
are pleased to have reached an agreement to end the Sunbeam blackout, and
regret that any of our customers were forced into the middle of a business
dispute where they should never have been in the first place," said
DirecTV. "We believe, like many, the public interest is best served by
allowing customers to keep their local broadcast stations as we negotiate
future agreements, rather than being denied access by broadcast stations and
used as leverage in what should be a private business matter."
"We
are pleased that we reached an agreement with DirecTV, and we appreciate our
viewers' patience during this tough negotiation," said Robert Leider, executive VP and
GM of Sunbeam.
