DirecTV customers likely have to turn to plan B for Sunday’s game

EL CENTRO -- DirecTV subscribers in Imperial and Yuma counties likely will have to make other arrangements if they want to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday.

On Tuesday, Yuma-based KYMA, which operates CBS 13 and NBC 11 in the region, announced that DirecTV had stopped retransmitting those stations after the service’s owner AT&T and KYMA’s owner, Cox Media Group, failed to reach an agreement on a price for carriage fees, the price cable and satellite services must pay to retransmit a station’s programming. About 23 Cox-owned station nationwide are affected.

AT&T and Cox were involved in a similar dispute two years ago.

A release posted on KYMA’s website Tuesday explained that stations must negotiate carriage agreements with cable and satellite companies by law.

“Usually, these deals are reached without any disruption to your service,” the release said. “In fact, our company has negotiated hundreds of agreements, including recent agreements with other large cable and satellite companies. Unfortunately, AT&T/DIRECTV has refused to agree to a fair market deal with CMG for the CBS 13 and NBC 11’s programming and services that customers value.”

KYMA denied the conflict was over CBS 13 and NBC 11 demanding excessive fees. “Despite what you may have heard, this dispute is not about CBS 13 and NBC 11 seeking large fees. CBS 13 and NBC 11 are among the highest rated channels on AT&T/DIRECTV. We invest millions of dollars to produce and bring top quality content for you, including our local news, weather, emergency programming and entertainment content. To keep doing that, we need a fair deal from AT&T/DIRECTV and all our distributors. We have over 100 carriage agreements, including those with every other major cable and satellite company that is carrying CBS 13 and NBC 11.”

On Friday, the city of El Centro passed along the following message from AT&T: “AT&T has requested that we notify you that Cox Media Group may black out the Super Bowl this weekend. AT&T has provided information on how you may be able to watch the game.”

The city shared a link (https://www.att.com/ support/ article/ directv/ KM1428739) that provides alternate means of watching Sunday game on CBS.

They include watching for free at CBSSports.com or on a phone or table using the CBS Sports app.