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EW Scripps Co. and television provider DirecTV have reached an agreement that will bring 54 local stations back to subscribers in about 40 markets across the United States.
A new multi-year deal announced late Friday, July 10, ends a five-week shipping dispute between the satellite and streaming TV company and the Cincinnati-based media company and will restore millions of viewers to both stations.
Scripps stations have been without power since May 31 for DirecTV subscribers in 36 cities, including Baltimore, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, Detroit, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Milwaukee, Nashville, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Tampa-St. St. Petersburg.
Both sides claimed the upper hand in the dispute, with Scripps describing DirecTV as “high-handed” and DirecTV accusing Scripps of “seeking record retransmission consent rates.”
Scripps confirmed in a statement to USA TODAY that it will be returning its stations to DirecTV subscribers. “We thank our viewers for their patience and look forward to continuing to provide the important local news, weather, sports and entertainment programming we know they value on the DirecTV platform,” the company said in a statement.
Rob Thune, DirecTV’s chief content officer, said in a news release that the concentration of local TV stations into a few companies has led to “unbalanced negotiations.”
“We appreciate the patience of our customers. Like them, we are frustrated that broadcasters are using power outages as a tool to force them to accept unfair rate hikes that are consistently well above normal inflation rates,” Thun said. “At a time when affordability is more important than ever, families are too often asked to pay more while receiving less.”
Which stations owned by Scripps returned to DirecTV at the end of the conflict?
The 54 Scripps local stations returning to DirecTV’s satellite, streaming, and U-verse services include:
- ABC station: Cities bringing back local ABC stations include Baltimore, Denver, Detroit, Las Vegas, San Diego, Phoenix and Buffalo, New York.
- CBS station: Nashville, Billings, Montana, and Omaha, Nebraska.
- fox station: Salt Lake City and Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo, Michigan.
- NBC station: Colorado Springs-Pueblo, Colorado, Milwaukee, Lexington, Kentucky, and Tulsa, Oklahoma.
- Independent TV station: Denver, Kansas City, Missouri, West Palm Beach, Florida – Fort Pierce.
In addition to its local television stations, Scripps also owns the national network Aeon (it sold Courtroom TV to Law&Crime studios and networks in February 2026).
Back in December, Scripps unanimously rejected a $622 million takeover offer from rival Sinclair, arguing it was not in the best interest of the company or its shareholders.
Mike Snyder is a national trends news reporter for USA TODAY. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, and X, and email him at: mike snyder & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider & msnider@usatoday.com.
