TEGNA (TGNA) and DIRECTV Resolve Carriage Dispute with New Agreement

After a contentious six-week blackout, TEGNA (TGNA) and DIRECTV have successfully reached a new multi-year distribution deal that reinstates carriage for TEGNA's 64 owned television stations across 51 Nielsen-designated U.S. markets. This resolution signals the end of a dispute that left DIRECTV subscribers without access to TEGNA's local TV stations, impacting viewership and advertising revenue.

Details of the Carriage Agreement

The specifics of the agreement, whose terms were not publicly disclosed, ensured that TEGNA's stations would once again be available to DIRECTV customers, restoring critical access to local news, sports, and entertainment programming. Given the scale of TEGNA's operations, with the company owning and operating TV stations in significant U.S. markets, the resolution of this blackout is a vital development for both parties involved.

Implications for the Television Broadcasting Companies

With the carriage dispute now settled, TGNA and GTN can refocus on their core business of content distribution. For TEGNA, headquartered in Tysons, Virginia, the agreement enables continued delivery of its programming to a substantial viewer base. On the other hand, GTN (Gray Television, Inc.), with a large portfolio of television stations and digital assets in the United States and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, operates in a similar space and can also take note of the resolution's implications for content distribution and carriage disputes.

TEGNA, DIRECTV, agreement