“We are still trying to negotiate a contract,’’ said Chris Wayland, general manager of WHDH and WLVI. “We hope we have an agreement before the Super Bowl.’’
What Sunbeam officials won’t say is whether they will allow viewers to see the big game on DirecTV, as they did in Miami for a playoff match. The company lifted a blackout at its Miami Fox affiliate station for last Sunday’s NFC championship game, a special edition of “American Idol,’’ and that evening’s local newscast and sports show. Then the station went dark again for about 270,000 DirecTV subscribers in South Florida.
Thomas Tyrer, a DirecTV spokesman, said Sunbeam should let the satellite provider’s customers in Greater Boston watch the Super Bowl on WHDH, Boston’s NBC affiliate, even without an agreement.
“We hope that they would return the Super Bowl to Patriots fans the exact same way they did the NFC championship with Fox this weekend,’’ said Tyrer. “No station has ever blacked out the Super Bowl in a retransmission consent dispute. We would be very surprised to see Sunbeam set that precedent.’’
In Boston and Miami, Sunbeam is seeking an increase in “retransmission consent fees,’’ which cable and satellite companies pay to the TV stations they carry. For broadcast stations, those fees can range from 45 cents to $1 per subscriber per month, according to broadcast analysts and local industry officials.
Frustrated viewers and subscribers have flooded both companies with complaints about the loss of their programming, and have caught the attention of both US senators from Massachusetts.
On Thursday, Senator John Kerry sent Julius Genachowski, Federal Communications Commission chairman, a letter requesting he ask DirecTV and Sunbeam “to reach terms under which the signal will be restored.’’
Senator Scott Brown sent a letter to DirecTV and Sunbeam officials on Friday, asking them to come to a resolution before the Super Bowl.
“It is outrageous that subscribers would pay hundreds of dollars a year for service and not get to watch the Super Bowl, the biggest television event of the year,’’ Brown wrote.
Members of the Massachusetts House delegation signed similar letters to both companies and to the FCC.
