Nexstar has announced that over 159 Nexstar Local TV Stations were Removed in 113 Markets at 7 p.m. ET on July 3 (yesterday).

This news comes after DIRECTV and Nexstar were unable to reach a new distribution agreement that would allow DIRECTV to continue airing programs from Nexstar’s local stations.

DIRECTV also rejected Nexstar’s offer to extend the current distribution agreement until October 31st, 2023.

The channels were removed from DIRECTV‘s satellite, cable, and streaming systems which directly affects over 10 million DIRECTV subscribers who had access to 159 TV stations run by Nexstar Media Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: NXST) (“Nexstar”).

Nexstar is one of America’s largest local broadcasting groups with 200 owned or partner stations in 116 U.S. markets reaching 212 million people.

What sort of content is included in the DIRECTV Nexstar Blackout?

The channels involved are content on local news, traffic, weather, sports, entertainment, and most noteworthily “critical updates regarding summer storms and tornadoes,“.

The channels also include the upcoming battle in soccer for the Women’s World Cup and Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game.

DIRECTV subscribers will not be able to view Women’s World Cup Soccer, British Open golf, LIV Golf, MLB’s All-Star Game, and all of the entertainment programming provided by Nexstar’s network partners, CBS, FOX, NBC, ABC, The CW, and MyNet.

The interruption also possibly affects access to pre-season NFL Football, and perhaps the opening games of the 2023-24 football season.

The Channels also cover subscribers in 113 Nexstar markets including Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Denver.

Nexstar does reinforce its commitment to accepting a mutual agreement for distribution by noting, “Nexstar routinely reaches amicable retransmission and carriage agreements with its cable, satellite, and telco partners—in the last three years alone, the company has successfully completed agreements with more than 500 distribution partners.“

Nexstar is encouraging those affected by the blackout to reach out to DIRECTV at 800-531-5000