We work hard to keep you connected to your favorite channels and shows. You expect the best for your entertainment dollar and we’re here to help deliver the value and quality you deserve.
We know that you have a lot of choices when it comes to TV service, so we work hard to provide the best TV experience at a great value. Network costs are the largest part of your TV bill, so we negotiate with Networks to get the channels you want at a fair price – to keep your bill as low as possible. So, what exactly goes into doing this?
We hope you stay because we negotiate on your behalf to give you the Networks you want at
a fair price. Even on those rare occasions when Networks do pull their signal, they’re usually dark for only a short period of time.
Networks do this to try to get you to switch providers and get us to agree to their demands,
and they do this with every TV provider: there were 278 blackouts in 2019 and that number jumped to over 340 in 2020*.
When disputes happen, it can be frustrating but know that we’re always fighting hard to keep your costs at a reasonable price.
*Includes digital subchannels. © 2021 American Television Alliance. All rights reserved.
December 2020
Sinclair pulled the signals to 23 CBS stations for over two months when Hulu wouldn’t agree to a large rate increase.
October 2020
Hulu dropped YES and all of the FOX RSNs after the end of the MLB season due to very high fees.
October 2020
Due to the, “rising cost of sports content”, YouTube stopped carrying YES and all of the FOX RSNs.
September 2020
Citing, “economically unsustainable” costs, Frontier dropped YES and all of the FOX RSNs.
January 2020
TEGNA withheld the signals to 16 stations from Mediacom’s customers for over 3 months when they couldn’t come to an agreement over a rate increase.
January 2020
fuboTV had to drop Disney-owned FOX networks for 7 months due to Disney’s high fees.
January 2020
Hearst blacked out the signals to 34 stations for two days, which they had also done to DIRECTV’s customers for a week in 2017.
January 2020
22 FOX Regional Sports Networks left fuboTV when they couldn’t come to an agreement on rising costs.
September 2019
FOX blacked out many cable networks and 17 stations. FOX is demanding big rate increases and DISH offered an extension but was turned down. “FOX had nothing to lose and consumers had everything to gain by leaving its channels up,” DISH said. “Instead, FOX chose to harm its viewers.”
We know that you have a lot of choices when it comes to TV service, so we work hard to provide the best TV experience at a great value. Network costs are the largest part of your TV bill, so we negotiate with Networks to get the channels you want at a fair price – to keep your bill as low as possible. So, what exactly goes into doing this?
A large part of your bill is the ever-increasing fees that the Networks demand to allow you to view their channels, and each channel charges a monthly fee per customer. We negotiate dozens of contracts each year, most of which go smoothly. But sometimes a Network will demand a big increase in its fees, which we think is unfair to you. In these cases, it’s our responsibility to take a stand to help protect you from excessive increases in your monthly bill. This is typically when a Network will black out its channel to try to get you to force us to pay more.
When disputes happen, it can be frustrating but know that we’re always fighting hard to keep your costs at a reasonable price.