KTLA Channel 5 Back on DirecTV

Culver City DirecTV customers will once again be able to watch their favorite CW shows and news on KTLA after a five-year agreement was reached to allow DirecTV to resume retransmitting KTLA-TV Channel 5, Tribune's other local stations and WGN America.

DirecTV was forced to drop the stations from its service early Sunday when the two sides were unable to reach a new agreement after the old one expired.

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Tribune restored the signals of KTLA, the other local stations and WGN America to DirecTV customers at approximately 6 p.m. Wednesday evening.

"We're pleased that Tribune and their creditors now recognize that all DirecTV wanted from day one was to pay fair market rates for their channels," said Derek Chang, DirecTV's executive vice president of content, strategy and development.

"It's unfortunate that Tribune was willing to hold our customers hostage in an attempt to extract excessive rates, but in the end we reached a fair deal at market rates similar to what we originally agreed to on March 29. On behalf of our customers, we are very happy to close the deal and put this behind us."

The two companies originally disagreed on how much DirecTV should pay Tribune to retransmit the over-the-air broadcasts through its service. Although people can watch their local stations for free using an antenna, cable and satellite television providers must pay retransmission fees to rebroadcast the content.

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