A DirecTV carriage dispute with 12 stations owned by Cox Media Group broke out early in February, and that had the potential to be a major pain for those trying to watch Super Bowl LVIII in the Seattle, WA and Dayton, OH areas. Those were the two areas where a CBS affiliate owned by Cox Media Group (majority owned by Apollo Global, minority owned by Cox Enterprises) was affected.
While DirecTV, U-verse, and DirecTV stream subscribers in those areas would still have been able to access the Super Bowl in other ways (including the Nickelodeon alternate broadcast and the Univision Spanish feed), or by other means of accessing CBS (Paramount+ or an antenna), this dispute marked a significant pain point at the very least for many. And with DirecTV also vowing to carry this Super Bowl in 4K (unlike Paramount+), the quality of the feed these subscribers got would have been worse without a deal.
But just hours ahead of Super Bowl LVIII’s kickoff at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Sunday, the sides announced they’ve come to turns for DirecTV to again carry all 12 of these stations, including the Seattle and Dayton CBS affiliates. And this is a new multi-year agreement, so there shouldn’t be an issue here for some time. As with many carriage disputes, this was fixed right before a big event.
As per DirecTV, the stations are already being restored to their platforms. The CBS affiliates in Dayton and Seattle are being emphasized, and are set to come online ahead of kickoff, with the other Cox-owned stations set to come online around the same time or shortly afterwards. (Note that while the Jacksonville CBS affiliate appears on that list, it was not impacted here, as it is owned by Hoffman Communications and only managed by Cox Media Group.)
There are still DirecTV subscribers who will not be able to watch the Super Bowl on their local CBS affiliate. That’s thanks to a carriage dispute with Mission Broadcasting and White Knight-owned and Nexstar-managed local affiliates that has been running since October 2022, impacting more than 25 stations overall, including CBS affiliates in Springfield, MO and Wilkes-Barre, PA. But the DirecTV dispute with Cox is now settled, and that’s good news for their subscribers in Dayton and Seattle.
[DirecTV]
