DirecTV customers lose CBS amid contract dispute

Millions of DirecTV subscribers have lost access to CBS programming after talks over a new distribution deal collapsed.

CBS Corp. and AT&T Inc., which owns DirecTV, failed to reach an agreement by a deadline early Saturday. Without a contract in place, AT&T no longer had authorization to include CBS station signals in its television packages in more than a dozen cities, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Sacramento.

“After months of negotiations, CBS is simply looking to receive fair value for its popular programming,” CBS said after its programming was removed from AT&T’s television services.

CBS has been demanding higher retransmission fees from pay-TV distributors. The move comes as AT&T and other cable and satellite TV companies struggle to hold the line on programming costs because they fear losing even more subscribers to lower-cost streaming services such as Hulu and Netflix.

“The problem is that broadcasters, like CBS, demand more money for shows that their viewers — our subscribers — are watching less,” AT&T said in a letter sent last week to members of Congress warning of a possible blackout. “Our customers are fed up with these tactics. They are tired of the endless cycle of price increases and blackouts.”

AT&T is the nation’s largest pay-TV distributor with nearly 24 million customer homes. But the telecommunications giant has been under pressure to control costs as it grapples with subscriber defections. AT&T lost about 1 million DirecTV subscribers in the past year.