Last summer, we thought with the AT&T purchase of DirecTV that it would only be a matter of time until the satellite provider would pick up Pac-12 Network. But here we are a year later and there’s no agreement in sight. This despite Frontier Communications just picking up Pac-12 Network for the Southern California market.
Frontier will make Pac-12 Network available on its Preferred tier for FiOS TV customers in Los Angeles while those in Palm Springs will access the channel on its Extreme tier. The agreement will add nearly 500,000 subscribers to Pac-12 Network’s viewership base, and while Pac-12 Conference Commissioner Larry Scott calls the Frontier pickup “a major add” for the network, DirecTV still remains a stubborn holdout.
Scott added that he still remains hopeful, but is still frustrated over the dispute with DirecTV: “We will keep knocking on the door and pushing as hard as we can…”
Pac-12 also announced that it reached an agreement with Cox Communications to carry the main Pac-12 Network channel on expanded basic in Arizona and home markets in California further extending the reach to viewers.
Scott says there’s hope that Pac-12 could reach an agreement with Charter Communications which is the other major pay TV to not carry the network.
But despite all this optimism about the pickups, DirecTV subscribers still can’t watch Pac-12 Network and its regional channels. DirecTV says the whole thing is about the per subscriber price and where the network wants to be located. Pac-12 says it has offered a fair price and DirecTV is making unfair demands.
Whatever the reason, fans don’t want to hear posturing, they want a result. But the dispute which has been ongoing since 2012 doesn’t seem to have any endgame and as another football season approaches, unless a last-minute agreement is reached, DirecTV subscribers will once again be shut out.
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