Tegna television stations in three markets went dark to Verizon Communications Fios TV customers on Monday at 5 p.m., after the parties failed to reach a retransmission consent agreement.
The affected stations were in Washington, D.C. (WUSA-CBS), Norfolk, Va. (WVEC-ABC) and Buffalo, N.Y. (WGRZ-NBC). In a statement, Tegna said it has reached hundreds of deals with distributors across the country without a service disruption, and was “disappointed we could not reach a deal with Verizon.”
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The impasse comes shortly after Verizon avoided a blackout of Walt Disney Co. ABC broadcast stations and cable networks. Fios also dropped the Fuse channel and BlazeTV in recent days.
“We remain hopeful this will get resolved quickly,” Tegna said in a statement.
Verizon issued a statement Wednesday (Jan. 2) that it had made an offer to Tegna that would return the stations to its subscribers, but hasn't received a response.
"Tegna is no longer negotiating with Verizon and has not responded to our last offer," Verizon said in the statement. "Tegna is demanding nearly double current monthly rates and using its own viewers as leverage, even as ratings on broadcast TV are down. We remain hopeful that Tegna will respond to Verizon's last proposal so we can focus on reaching a fair deal and returning the channels to customers."
