KCRA’s Parent Company Dispute With DirecTV Leads To Channel Black Out

Northern California DirecTV customers are tuning into KCRA Channel 3 to find the station has been blacked out due to a dispute with Hearst Television, KCRA’s parent company.

KCRA is one of Hearst Television's 30 stations across the country that have been unavailable on DirecTV since Sunday.

Last week, Hearst announced the company had reached an impasse with DirecTV over how much it should pay for Hearst's channels. As a result, the satellite company is currently not broadcasting any Hearst channels.

DirecTV’s parent company AT&T says Hearst is asking for a significant increase in fees for channels that are offered for free over the air and online.

Hearst responded that while their programming has always been free over the air, they expect fair rates from companies who seek to profit from their programming.