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The Nexstar Stand Off

As you likely know, Nexstar is in a retrans pissing match with DirecTV and it has been going on for over a month.

FTVLive got this email from a viewer in Ft. Wayne and we thought we would share it with you.

I've been a DIRECTV subscriber for 23 years.  Six weeks ago, they removed my local Nexstar channel (WANE-TV Fort Wayne) and played this video on a loop for about one month:

Two weeks ago, the video was discontinued and we get a standard slide explaining the standoff. 

Locally, the station has remained mute on the subject (as to not offend the Nexstar overlords). 

For six weeks, I've been watching their competitors' newscasts and it's doubtful I will return to WANE when this is over.  Hope Nexstar realizes it's hurting them the most at the local level.

Has there been progress?  Will we get to see NFL games (always a prime motivator to get companies fighting for retransmission fees to solve the problems)? 

Here’s the short answer to this email, Nexstar doesn’t care about you the viewer, but they care very much about what’s in your wallet. Nexstar makes a huge bulk of its money from retransmission agreements. Every month, more and more people cut the cord and leave cable and satellite behind. This costs Nexstar money, so instead of trying to get those people back, their answer is to raise the fee for those that stick around.

TV ownership groups look at retrans fees as the golden goose, but they are killing the goose and don’t seem to care at all.

I’m one of those that cut the cord years ago and I will never pay for cable again.

My recommendation is you do the same. It will save you so much frustration.

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