A dispute between AT&T’s U-verse cable service and Raycom Media left some college basketball fans out in the cold Thursday and Friday and threatens to continue disrupting the local CBS affiliate’s coverage of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
Viewers tuning in to Cleveland’s WOIO Channel 19 were greeted with a message that read, “The owner of this channel, Raycom Media, has removed it from the U-verse channel lineup despite our request to keep it available to you.”
Raycom also owns WUAB Channel 43, which was cut off for U-verse subscribers. The blocked signal has affected all programming, including newscasts — on both channels.
U-verse customers caught off guard by the spat posted screen shots of the message on social media.
In a statement on its website, Raycom said its stations in 23 media markets were “dropped” by U-verse amid retransmission negotiations.
AT&T countered in a statement posted on its website that Raycom was “deliberately preventing” WOIO and WUAB from reaching its customers’ homes.
In its statement, Raycom noted that this is the fifth “ takedown of service by AT&T U-Verse since their merger with DirecTV. Prior to the AT&T merger with DirecTV, AT&T U-Verse had no signal disruptions during retransmission negotiations.”
“We never want our communities to experience a disruption,” said Pat LaPlatney, Raycom Media President and CEO. “These retransmission consent agreements are important free-market negotiations that sustain broadcast localism. It is unfortunate that AT&T U-Verse appears to be involving their customers in their broader business strategy.”
The statement also noted that in the last three years, “Raycom Media has successfully negotiated retransmission consent agreements” with 99.5 percent of its operators without a disruption to viewers.
On its website, AT&T said, “We want to get WOIO and WUAB back into your local lineup as soon as possible. Doing so requires permission from their owner, Raycom Media, since FCC rules grant WOIO and WUAB exclusive control over whether each station remains available on U-verse. We share your frustration because Raycom is deliberately preventing WOIO and WUAB from reaching your home until Raycom receives a significant increase in fees even though you can still watch its shows for free over-the-air [using an antenna or watching over the web].”
The statement continued, “We have asked Raycom repeatedly to allow you to watch while we work this business matter out privately, but Raycom continues to refuse. Raycom has suspended its stations from AT&T and other providers’ customers before and also threatened to disconnect others. We can have WOIO and WUAB back into your lineup within moments of Raycom simply granting its permission. We’d like to resolve this matter quickly and reasonably, and we appreciate your patience while we attempt just that.