DirecTV Strikes Deal With News Corp.
News Corp. struck a deal Monday that will keep its cable and broadcast channels on DirecTV.
"We're pleased to announce that an agreement has been reached. There will be NO service interruption," said DirecTV's email to customers.
The satellite broadcaster service was set to drop more than two dozen News Corp.-owned channels, including FX Entertainment and regional sports outlets Prime Ticket and Fox Sports, on Tuesday.
In addition to keeping these channels, the deal also includes local television stations that carry Fox programming, such as NFL Games and comedy shows "Glee" and "New Girl."
Although a deal had been reached, negotiations between programmers and distributors are becoming more common. Networks look to distribution fees to cover rising programming costs. At the same time, distributors fear losing customers to rising monthly bills.
Broadcast carriers rarely actually drop channels, but it does happen. Satellite broadcaster Dish Network stopped carrying many Fox-owned cable networks for a month last year until a new agreement was reached.
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