NBC affiliation contract expiring?

[100youtubesubsc 6]

I just saw this post in a forum thread on the SatelliteGuys.us forum:

 

“It looks like another station group's affiliation agreement with NBC is on the verge of expiration.

The national NBC East and West feeds are testing again on the [DirecTV] streaming server along with a slate about a "temporary NBC service" being available next to their usual NBC station.”

 

I’m not sure what owner it is, but I am guessing it could be Sinclair.

Regardless of who it really is though, this is not good.

[J.W. Rodriguez 17]

You can rest assured that Sinclair and NBC are locked into a multi-year agreement, according to the link below. I didn't hear anything regarding The Hearst Corporation and their NBC affiliates, though I'm guessing they could be the ones involved in the potential dispute.

 

Sinclair Announces Renewals of NBC Affiliation Agreements | Business Wire

Edited March 8 by J.W. Rodriguez

[100youtubesubsc 6]

Ah. Didn't know Sinclair also had their renewal, thanks for letting me know.

Hearst would make more sense, as I couldn't find anything about their agreement with NBC online.

Hopefully they can get it resolved in time. Luckily, DirecTV has a contingency plan in place for whoever gets affected.

[susquvalleywgal 520]

14 hours ago, 100youtubesubsc said:

Ah. Didn't know Sinclair also had their renewal, thanks for letting me know.

Hearst would make more sense, as I couldn't find anything about their agreement with NBC online.

Hopefully they can get it resolved in time. Luckily, DirecTV has a contingency plan in place for whoever gets affected.

 

WGAL has been an NBC affiliate since it's inception.  Them not being NBC would be insane.  

 

Matt

[kyl416 4]

It's not Hearst, they're good until 01/2028. It's also not any of the other big names like Gray/Nexstar/Scripps/Sinclair/Hubbard/Graham/Cox/Tegna/Allen, etc. They all either had recent renewals or aren't expiring until the end of 2025

 

You can usually find the expiration dates in their public files on the FCC site, either as part of their biennial ownership reports or a seperate filing under contracts and agreements. It's probably someone who expired at the end of 2024 and is running out of short term extensions.

[nathannah 2493]

More likely it's just as usual for DirecTV; test channels go up, they're tested for a bit and then they disappear and it's nothing to worry about. Planning for all situations and making sure everything works in public view.

But I don't think it would be Hearst, who is a bedrock 'must renew ASAP' group for NBC (they wouldn't have done the Gulf Coast News rebrand now if they weren't confident of keeping NBC); most likely it's one of the more tenuous groups like Allen Media Group, which we all know the issues with and where it's a coinflip if the monthly affiliate dues are paid out.

[Samantha 2898]

Curiously, the SatelliteGuys thread says this has not shown up on satellite. I wonder if given the circumstances this is about a deal between NBC and DirecTV itself for streaming for all affiliates.