DirecTV customers lose access to KFVS12 programs

By Savanna Maue

SEMO News Service

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- A contract dispute has left DirecTV customers without the ability to watch KFVS12 programming.

Tim Ingram, vice president and general manager of KFVS, explained the situation during the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce First Friday Coffee event at the Isle Casino Cape Girardeau.

When asked for more details, Ingram said at midnight Aug. 31, DirecTV officials chose to stop offering the KFVS channel to viewers, despite negotiations that have been in the works for months.

"I went to a meeting in our headquarters in March, and [DirecTV] were already negotiating this contract," Ingram said. "We thought that we had good negotiations going forward, we thought everything was good, and then it just sort of dried up over the [Labor Day] weekend. I got emails up until Sunday night saying 9 p.m. Sunday night was the deadline; they are going to tell us at 9 p.m. if they are going to do it or not, and at 9 o'clock they said no and turned us off at midnight."

This transaction took place before one of the news station's major events -- Thursday night NFL football -- which was promoted in the chamber presentation Friday morning.

Raycom Media is the parent company of KFVS and includes basic local TV channels as well as larger networks such as ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC. All were dropped from DirecTV when the contract was not renewed.

An KFVS employee said it does not know the total number of users this affects because it affects viewers nationwide, and no one at DirecTV could be reached for comment late Friday afternoon.

Dan York, chief content officer for DirecTV, said in a news release: "We ask nothing more than for Raycom to set aside their egregious pricing demands for access to 'free' over-the-air TV signals for a few hours, abide by their license to serve the public interest and allow their own viewers to enjoy their NFL and NCAA football games."