Chris Wayland, general manager of WHDH and WLVI, said that DirecTV’s proposed fees are too low, but he would not provide specific numbers.
“We have negotiated several agreements with several other cable companies, which has clearly set a market rate,’’ Wayland said. “At this point, DirecTV is not willing to come anywhere what the established market rate is… . We are still negotiating and anxious to get to a resolution.’’
DirecTV officials said they have successfully negotiated fee agreements with more than 70 stations in the past year, but Sunbeam is asking for too much. DirecTV has “no problem compensating Sunbeam fairly, but we have to take a stand against runaway greed and a shameless attempt to extort a more than 300 percent fee increase that our customers risk having to absorb,’’ said Derek Chang, executive vice president of programming.
Chang said DirecTV asked Sunbeam to keep the signal available during negotiations over the weekend, to no avail. “We think it’s the totally wrong thing to do to customers,’’ he said.
WHDH officials have suggested that viewers either switch cable or satellite providers or buy digital rabbit ear antennas to pick up the station’s over-the-air signals.
The Four’s bar and grill in downtown Boston has 44 televisions set to DirecTV’s subscription plan, which provides such sports channels as ESPN and Comcast SportsNet. When owner Peter Colton tuned into WHDH yesterday, he was greeted with this message: “The owner of this station has unfortunately forced DirecTV to temporarily remove it from your lineup despite our repeated attempts to keep the station up.’’
Colton was counting on WHDH to bring in a crowd for the Super Bowl on Feb. 5. If the blackout lasts long, it “would definitely hurt us, especially if the Patriots are playing,’’ he said. The Super Bowl will be broadcast on NBC, the network of WHDH.
Jim Catalano of Salem saw the DirecTV message on Saturday, when he and his girlfriend tried to tune into WHDH’s morning newscast. “The consumer is being left in the dark,’’ Catalano said. “I feel terrible about it. If this thing drags on for Super Bowl Sunday, it will have a tremendous impact on me. ’’
