Scripps affiliates go dark on DirecTV as NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Final approach

Local station group Scripps is entering its second major ongoing distribution battle, this time with satellite provider DirecTV.

Two months since Scripps affiliates went dark for Comcast customers, the local station group’s broadcast networks have now gone dark for DirecTV customers across the country. Scripps is among the largest operators of ABC affiliates across the country, meaning impacted customers will be unable to watch the NBA Finals or Stanley Cup Final — both of which start this week — through DirecTV platforms. Major markets with Scripps-owned ABC affiliates include Phoenix, Denver, Detroit, Baltimore, Tampa, Las Vegas, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Buffalo. Additionally, Scripps owns numerous CBS, NBC, and Fox affiliates across the country.

As usual, the blackout results from Scripps and DirecTV being unable to agree on the per-subscriber price that Scripps will charge DirecTV to carry its channels. In a statement given to Variety, DirecTV said Scripps “is demanding the highest rates DirecTV has ever received from a station group, which would continue to dramatically raise costs for consumers and businesses already struggling with affordability. After DirecTV declined those demands and sought a more reasonable agreement, Scripps chose to remove its stations from viewers in several major markets nationwide.”

Scripps countered that narrative by saying it “has been engaging in good-faith negotiations with DirecTV to establish an equitable agreement that serves both companies and, most importantly, consumers,” noting that Scripps stations have only gone dark twice in the company’s history.

Reading between the lines, it looks like rubber is hitting the road on Scripps’ local sports strategy. The company is now the full-time local broadcast partner for five NHL teams — the Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers, Vegas Golden Knights, Utah Mammoth, and Nashville Predators — and one NBA team — the Detroit Pistons — and is seeking to capitalize on owning that valuable programming by extracting higher retransmission fees out of pay-TV distributors like DirecTV and Comcast. The distributors, however, argue that they should not be on the hook for significant increases when Scripps content can be accessed for free via a digital antenna.

Success for Scripps’ local sports strategy is predicated on securing these higher retransmission fees. Meanwhile, distributors seem less inclined to pay for local sports broadcasts broadly speaking. Comcast, for instance, has moved nearly every traditional regional sports network to higher, more expensive tiers to avoid passing on the high cost of these channels to customers who may not watch them.

Scripps’ dispute with Comcast ended in May, just over a month after it began, suggesting DirecTV customers could be in for an extended blackout. Customers in the impacted markets will need to find alternatives to access Scripps-owned broadcast networks in the meantime. Those could include an antenna, other pay-TV providers like YouTube TV, or direct-to-consumer streaming services like ESPN Unlimited, which carries live sports shown on ABC, or Peacock, which carries live sports shown on NBC.

This story has been corrected to state the Scripps-Comcast dispute was resolved in May, just over a month after it began.