7/20/2019 by 
Stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere have been removed from channel lineups amid a carriage dispute between the companies.
CBS stations have gone dark on AT&T’s DirecTV and U-Verse platforms after the two sides failed to come to terms on a new carriage agreement.
CBS stations in more than a dozen cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and other major markets are impacted, affecting about 6.6 million viewers.
In a statement released overnight, CBS says it offered a 30 day extension for negotiations but AT&T declined the offer. “While we continue to negotiate in good faith and hope that AT&T agrees to fair terms soon, this loss of CBS programming could last a long time,” the statement continued.
The broadcaster said that the existing agreement was signed in 2012 and “is nowhere close to today’s fair market terms for CBS content.”
AT&T told its customers that it “asked CBS to keep them available while we continue to negotiate. CBS removed them instead. This is completely CBS’s decision.” The company went on to tell its subscribers to use the free local streaming app Locast, or to sign up for a trial to CBS All Access if they want to watch CBS programming.
DirecTV is also in the midst of a carriage dispute with local stations owned by Nexstar Media Group. More than 120 local stations operated by the company went dark on the satellite TV provider earlier this month.
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