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DirecTV-Channel 7 fee fight could black out Super Bowl for thousands
SALEM, N.H., Jan 26, 2012 (The Eagle-Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Harry Bovee and his wife Mary are hoping to have a few people over to their place Feb. 5 to watch the Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants.
However, they might have to go somewhere else, since Channel 7 may be dark for people like them who have a DirecTV satellite dish on their roof.
"We were going to have a party, but now, I don't know," said Bovee, 70, of 120 Dart Drive. "The guys call me and say, 'Are we coming over?' I said, 'You'd better not. Maybe I'll come over there. Or maybe we'll be down at the Plantation.'"
The Plantation Bar and Grill on Hampstead Street in Methuen -- or any other establishment that has cable TV -- may be packed with disgruntled satellite customers unable to watch the Super Bowl in their own homes because of an ongoing contract dispute between DirecTV and Sunbeam Television Corp.
Sunbeam owns NBC affiliate station WHDH in Boston and is scheduled to carry the big game. While most of the station's 2.4 million viewers will be able to watch, about 203,000 DirecTV customers could be left in the dark.
DirecTV spokesman Tom Tyrer said the satellite company is hopeful that the two sides can come to an agreement.
"It would be inconceivable for anyone in New England to miss it." he said. "But that's within Sunbeam's control. We could have NBC back up in minutes. We would hope they'd turn it on immediately and then we can have our discussions in the background, where they belong, so nobody has any disruption."
But Chris Wayland, general manager of WHDH, who has been directly involved in the negotiations between DirecTV and Sunbeam, said owners of the company "haven't decided" what to do.
"We hope there's an agreement and we continue to negotiate every day," he said.
The dispute is over something called re-transmission fees. DirecTV pays content providers such as Channel 7 a fee to air their station's signal to satellite subscribers. The last agreement expired Jan. 13. DirecTV claims that Sunbeam is seeking a 300 percent increase in the fee.
Wayland said that number was misleading and that they are only seeking the "market rate" that other stations are getting and that other cable companies are paying to Sunbeam.
"We want a deal and we want it to be the same as what we've negotiated with other companies and what we think they are paying other stations," Wayland said.
In the meantime, he added, people can look for alternatives, such as an antenna on the top of their TVs, Verizon-FIOS or Comcast.
Politicians weighing in
U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. is calling on the Federal Communications Commission for help.
"Through no fault of their own, subscribers have become bargaining chips in these negotiations and are being denied access to the TV programming they've paid to receive," Shaheen said. "The blackout is already more than a week old and must end immediately."
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., wrote a scathing letter to Edmund Ansin, owner of Sunbeam, and Michael White, head of DirecTV, saying they were playing a game of "high-stakes corporate chicken."
"A blackout of the Super Bowl is almost unthinkable," he said. "If people in Boston miss the Super Bowl ... (they) will throw up their hands and say, 'a pox on both of their houses.' This is an outcome we should avoid."
Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., said in a letter to Ansin and White that it was "outrageous that subscribers would pay hundreds of dollars a year for service and not get to watch the Super Bowl, the biggest television event of the year."
Meanwhile, over at Comcast, crews stand ready to hook up new customers with just 24 hours' notice, according to spokesman Marc Goodman.
People like the Bovees do feel like they are caught in the middle.
"It's hard to tell what they're feeding you," he said, "whether it's 7 or DirecTV at fault. But if there's no Super Bowl, I'll switch to Comcast or Verizon. I already called Comcast and they said they could be here within two days."
Another option for viewers, according to DirecTV spokesman Tyrer, is that for the first time ever, NBC.com and NFL.com will be streaming the game live to computers, game consoles, tablets and handheld devices such as smart phones.
"That's good," he said. "But it's not a replacement for the in-home, big screen, HD experience."
___ (c)2012 The Eagle-Tribune (North Andover, Mass.) Visit The Eagle-Tribune
(North Andover, Mass.) at www.eagletribune.com Distributed by MCT Information
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