WISN-TV is back on DirecTV after parent companies reach a deal on retransmission fees

DirecTV subscribers in Milwaukee are getting WISN-TV (Channel 12) again Sunday after WISN's parent company, Hearst Television, and DirecTV operator AT&T reached a new agreement on retransmission fees. 

The collapse of talks on a new deal had left WISN dark on DirecTV since Friday night. 

In a joint statement released Sunday morning, Hearst, which owns WISN and 33 other local TV stations around the country, and AT&T said the two companies had reached a "new multi-year retransmission consent agreement." Terms were not disclosed. 

A previous three-year deal on retransmission fees expired Dec. 31, but the two sides continued negotiations until an impasse was declared Friday night. WISN and other Hearst stations around the country had been off DirecTV and AT&T TV Now since.  

DirecTV and AT&T TV, like other cable and satellite services, pay networks, cable channels and local TV stations a fee to retransmit their signal to their subscribers. 

As the traditional advertising model for television has been challenged by other content-delivery systems like streaming services, broadcasters have sought fee increases that the cable and satellite systems have balked at. When the two sides reach an impasse, the signals go dark on the services. 

Hearst has pulled its signal during retransmission clashes before. WISN and other Hearst stations went dark for a week on DirecTV the last time their retransmission agreement expired, on Jan. 1, 2017. Later that year, Hearst stations disappeared from the Dish TV satellite service for nearly eight weeks before a new agreement on fees was concluded. 

In 2014, WISN-TV and other Hearst stations briefly left DISH Network, and the stations were off Time Warner Cable systems for a week in 2012.

Contact Chris Foran at chris.foran@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @cforan12.

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