Hearst, DirecTV reach deal on programming fees

2010-12-30 14:57:00 PST New York, , — (12-30) 14:57 PST NEW YORK, (AP) --

DirecTV satellite subscribers around the country will continue to receive network TV stations owned by Hearst Corp. after the two companies reached a new deal over the fees that DirecTV pays the broadcasting company to carry stations on its lineup.

The original deal would have expired at midnight Friday, and subscribers in Boston, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and other markets could have lost Hearst-owned stations on DirecTV. Hearst owns 29 local TV stations, which include affiliates of all the major networks except Fox.

Many of these negotiations over fees have been going down to the wire recently as broadcasters look to tap a second source of revenue outside of selling commercial time. Some disputes have even extended past the expiration of previous deals, leaving cable and satellite subscribers without channels for days, even weeks.

Sinclair Broadcast Group is still wrangling with Time Warner Cable Inc. over the same issue. If a deal isn't reached by midnight Friday, 33 stations could go dark for Time Warner customers.

The stakes in these cases can be big for sports fans. Potentially affected in the Sinclair-Time Warner dispute is the ABC broadcast of Saturday's Outback Bowl between Florida and Penn State. Sinclair has an ABC station in Pensacola, Fla.

Hearst and DirecTV reached a new deal Wednesday and announced it Thursday.

Terms were not disclosed. DirecTV, which is based in El Segundo, Calif., has about 19 million subscribers nationwide, although the company would not say how many could have been affected had it failed to reach a deal with Hearst, which is based in New York.