Verizon Fios customers in New England and Pittsburgh will be unable to watch their hometown teams during a pair of critical Week 18 matchups on Sunday.
Boston-area Fox affiliate WFXT and Pittsburgh-area NBC affiliate WPXI both remain unavailable to Verizon Fios customers due to an ongoing carriage dispute with Cox Media Group. The networks went dark on Dec. 15 and remain blacked out.
For Patriots fans in New England, and Steelers fans in Pittsburgh, this means finding alternative methods to watch Sunday’s key games. The Patriots are playing Sunday afternoon against the Miami Dolphins on Fox needing a win and a Denver Broncos loss to secure a No. 1 seed and first-round bye in the AFC. The Steelers are playing on NBC’s Sunday Night Football against the Baltimore Ravens, with the winner earning the final spot in this year’s postseason.
It seems that even the added pressure of missing critical NFL games did not help push a deal between Verizon and Cox over the finish line.
Luckily, impacted fans still have options to access their games. Both networks can be accessed for free with a digital antenna, assuming a good signal. And for those without an antenna, both Fox and NBC offer NFL broadcasts through their respective streaming services, Fox One and Peacock. Many services like Hulu Live and YouTube TV offer free trials as well.
Still, these options are far from ideal for customers that have already paid for a full pay TV package, and expect local channels like Fox and NBC to be available without disruption.
Given that the Week 18 schedule isn’t decided until Week 17 concludes, the fact that the Patriots and Steelers were both scheduled for networks that are currently unavailable to a certain portion of their in-market fanbases is pretty unlucky. If the Steelers had beaten the Browns in Week 17, therefore clinching a playoff spot, this almost certainly wouldn’t be an issue in Pittsburgh, as a different game would’ve been selected for Sunday Night Football.
Unfortunately, some fans are being left in the dark during the most important week of the season.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.