Belo Television and DirecTV are facing a November 1 deadline to come to an agreement on a retransmission-consent deal.
Belo claims their 20 stations (view a list of them here)are undervalued by DirecTV. “They pay channels with far fewer viewers more,” Doug Armstrong, general manager of Belo’s KTVB in Boise, told the Idaho Statesman.
Belo started notifying their viewers of the dispute with commercials earlier this week. DirecTV, which says on their website that negotiations with Belo are ongoing, issued a statement to the Dallas Observer disputing the notion that viewers are at risk of losing the stations.
“Their TV commercials are nothing more than a routine approach to try and gain leverage in negotiations,” the statement reads. “DirecTV customers should ignore Belo’s scare tactics and enjoy their DirecTV service as they always have.”