Fox and DirecTV Reach Carriage Renewal, Avoiding Blackout

Fox Corp. and DirecTV have come to terms on a new agreement and averted a potential blackout of a number of networks.

With the previous deal set to expire Friday at midnightthe two companies announced a multi-year carriage renewal in a joint press release Saturday. The deal covers FS1, FS1, Big Ten Network, Fox Deportes, Fox Soccer Plus (PPV) and Fox’s owned-and-operated local stations.

The renewal impacts eighteen markets, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Financial terms were not specified.

This comes at a busy time for sports coverage, with the 2022 World Cup airing on Fox and FS1, while Fox programming this weekend also includes NFL games and the Big Ten College Football Championship.

Last weekend, Fox started airing a crawl on multiple channels to warn viewers that failure to reach an agreement with DirecTV could result in a loss of access to programming. The companies had been engaged in active talks at the time.

Fox found itself in a similar situation with New York-based cable companyAltice in October, as the companies were at odds over fees until settling the dispute in time to similarly avoid blackouts. Fox hasn’t gone dark over a carriage dispute since negotiations with Dish Network led stations to go down for 10 days in 2019.