After long blackout, KPIX service is back for AT&T TV subscribers

Deal with CBS will bring an end to dispute over transmission fees

Bay Area residents who have AT& T as their TV service provider woke up Thursday to find the local CBS affiliate, KPIX, back on their screens after being dark for almost three weeks.

KPIX and its sister station, CW affiliate KBCW, returned to DirecTV, U-Verse and DirecTV Now subscribers after CBS and AT&T reached an agreement to resolve a dispute over how much AT&T pays CBS to retransmit CBS programming over its pay-TV services. The two companies didn’t disclose terms of the deal, other than to say in a statement than it was a “multiyear content carriage agreement.”

The local CBS stations, along with those in 16 other markets such as Los Angeles, Sacramento and New York, had been dark since the prior carriage agreement between the network and AT&T expired July 19. While the stations were off line, an estimated 6.6 million households in the U.S. were unable to watch CBS programming unless they chose an alternate method — such as hooking up an over- the- air digital antenna or subscribing to the CBS All Access streaming TV service.

The deal also ensures that Bay Area NFL fans who subscribe to AT&T for TV service won’t miss the start of the league’s preseason. The San Francisco 49ers are scheduled to have their first pre-season game on KPIX on Aug. 10, while the Oakland Raiders’ first appearance on KPIX is set for the team’s second regular season game, on Sept. 15.

While AT&T reached a deal to bring the CBS channels back, independent station KRON still remains impossible for AT&T customers to watch; the company remains in a carriagefee disputer with KRON’s owner, Nexstar.