Thousands Of AT&T TV Customers In Miami, Tampa Missing CBS

MIAMI, FL — Thousands of AT&T television customers in the Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa and St. Petersburg areas woke up this weekend to find a "sorry for the interruption" message where they would have had their local CBS channels. The issue affects AT&T's DirecTV and U-verse services.

AT&T's Kelly Starling told Patch on Saturday that the programming was pulled over a contract dispute that affected WFOR-CBS and WBFS-MNT in the Miami and Fort Lauderdale areas as well as WTOG-CW in the Tampa and St. Petersburg areas. In addition, WFLA-NBC and WTTA-MNT were also affected in the Tampa and St. Petersburg areas.

"We were willing to continue to negotiate and also offered to pay CBS an unprecedented rate increase," explained AT&T. "That increase would present CBS the highest fee we currently pay to any major broadcast network group, despite the fact that CBS stations like WFOR-CBS and WBFS-MNT are available free over the air," the company said.

In Tampa and St. Petersburg, Nexstar recently pulled WFLA-NBC and WTTA-MNT over a similar dispute.

AT&T said CBS and Nexstar turned down offers. "CBS is a repeat blackout offender and has removed its stations from DISH Network and Charter Spectrum customers in the past and threatened to remove them from other providers to ensure much higher fees," according to AT&T. "CBS continues to demand unprecedented increases even as CBS advances content on CBS All Access instead of WFOR-CBS."

In Miami, DirecTV customers saw a screen that said the service was experiencing technical difficulties where WFOR-TV would have been.

"No need to call us," said the message in English and Spanish. "Service will be restored as soon as technical difficulties are resolved. Please check this channel periodically for status. Sorry for the interruption."

AT&T noted that CBS has said publicly the network priced its All Access service much higher to capitalize on customers it can capture from cable, satellite or other means of distribution.

"In short, CBS is seeking to convert a free, publicly subsidized broadcast station into a high-cost channel while leaving cable and satellite customers holding the bag," AT&T said. "Make no mistake. We want WFOR-CBS and WBFS-MNT in our lineup. Yet customers today are demanding more choice and value from their local stations. Instead, it has become clear to us that CBS is intent on blacking out any home that chooses to receive cable or satellite service, antagonizing its most loyal viewers."

In the Tampa and St. Petersburg areas, local viewers can continue to receive their CBS programming without any interruption on WTSP-CBS, channel 10, the same as before, according to AT&T.

"You can watch the same shows for free over the air on channels 44, 8 and 38. You can typically stream them at the WTOG-CW, WFLA-NBC and WTTA-MNT websites and often at cwtv.com and nbc.com or using the CW and NBC mobile apps," said AT&T.

AT&T suggested that customers who are facing service disruptions use a product called Local Channel Connector — a device that connects an over-the-air antenna to DirecTV equipment — so users you can get local channels the old-fashioned way. It also puts local signals into the program guides of DirecTV customers who have Genie receivers. Customers should call their providers for more information.

"Fans of WFOR-CBS and WBFS-MNT can also watch over-the-air on channels 4 and 33 and typically at the station websites, at CBS.com or using the CBS mobile apps," advised AT&T. "CBS Sports Network and Smithsonian Channel stream their shows via their own network websites and mobile apps."

AT&T said retransmission consent fees have increased from about $200,000 in 2006, to $10.1 billion in 2018, an increase of 4,950 percent.