Fox and DirecTV have failed to reach an agreement ahead of the expiration of a Fox/DirecTV carriage deal, the two companies are continuing active talks, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
“Fox remains committed to reaching a fair agreement with DirecTV for the continued distribution of our networks,” Fox said in an official statement Sunday. “Despite our best efforts for months, we regret that DirecTV continues to demand unprecedented special treatment that represents a wholesale change to our long-standing relationship and is out of step with marketplace terms.”
“While Fox continues to seek an agreement benefiting all parties, our priority is ensuring viewers’ ability to access all Fox Sports, Fox Entertainment and local Fox station programming,” the company continued.
DirecTV responded with their own statement issued on Monday that criticized Fox’s “tired programmer scare tactics of putting customers into the middle of contract renewals,” and agreed that they are working hard to reach an agreement.
“At this point, any interruption of Fox programming depends solely on Fox alone,” DirecTV said in the statement. “DirecTV has no intention to remove any Fox content. The best way for everyone to ‘Keep Fox’ is for Fox to keep making it available themselves.”
“Based on our excellent track record with Fox, we’re confident we’ll come to terms ahead of any potential disruption. In fact, we’ve renewed nearly 200 local FOX stations much like these over the last few years.”
“Unfortunately, the same old, tired programmer scare tactics of putting customers into the middle of contract renewals tend to die hard. Fox invented this tactic back at the turn of the century, and has a long, long history of aggravating consumers to help try to boost their guaranteed rates, while most renewals are typically resolved without any interruptions. Just last month, Fox alerted Altice USA customers, only to settle without removing signals, while the same is true of other recent Fox renewals with Roku and the National Cable Television Cooperative, among others.”
