Las Vegas’ KLAS-TV returns to DirecTV after new deal

It’s been a long, hot summer for local DirecTV subscribers, but relief is finally here. The contract dispute that’s kept KLAS-TV, Channel 8, off the service since July 3 has been resolved.

Nexstar Media Group, which owns the local CBS affiliate, and AT&T, DirecTV’s parent company, announced a multi-year agreement in a joint press release Thursday.

“AT&T and Nexstar regret the inconvenience incurred by customers, viewers and advertisers,” the statement said, “and we thank them for their patience as the new agreement was being finalized.”

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the stalemate originated over retransmission fees, the money local stations charge cable and satellite providers to air the same content that’s available to customers for free, over the air, via an antenna.

“Nexstar is demanding to roughly double its fees,” AT&T had said in a statement at the outset of the blackout. Those retransmission fees, the company said, have increased by 2,000 percent since 2008.

Irving, Texas-based Nexstar acquired Channel 8 in 2015, the same year AT&T purchased DirecTV.

In early 2016, a similar dispute between Nexstar and Cox Communications resulted in Channel 8 being knocked off the local cable system for five days and threatened access to Super Bowl 50.

The local CBS station was restored to DirecTV customers on Thursday.

The impasse between AT&T and Nexstar had affected 120 stations in 97 markets across the nation.

Meanwhile, KVVU-TV, Channel 5, remained dark on Dish Network. It was removed from the lineup July 16 as the result of a similar disagreement between the satellite company and the station’s owner, Meredith Corporation, based in Des Moines, Iowa.

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567. Follow @life_onthecouch on Twitter.