CBS O&O blackout ends

CBS and AT&T have finalized a multiyear retransmission agreement for DirecTV and U-verse to carry the network’s owned and operated stations in 17 major markets.

Viewers in the markets affected lost access to CBS’s network programming as well as locally produced news and other programming overnight between July 19 and 20, 2019.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

CBS had reportedly been seeking an increase of $1 per subscriber.

It reportedly had been receiving approximately $2 per subscriber under the 2012 deal that ended last month.

In the back and forth sparring between the two companies, AT&T claimed CBS O&Os already receive the highest per subscriber rate of any major station group.

The deal means that CBS programming will be restored in time for the fall TV season and football season, both of which are popular with viewers and important for CBS ratings.