DirecTV Customers May Lose WGME TV on March 1st

DirecTV customers on March 1st may lose WGME, Channel 13. It seems to be getting more and more common. Television companies and TV service providers both playing hardball with negotiation tactics that include hard deadlines, blackouts on television services, like cable, DirecTV and Dish Network.

Last year it was Viacom fighting with DirecTV, recent fights with Time Warner Cable (TWC) featuring WMTW-Channel 8 (Hearst) and Sinclair Broadcasting who owns, Channel 13-WGME also had a tiff with TWC in the last year or so.

Now, Channel 13, WGME is in re-negotiations with DirecTV and again taking the dealing to the 11^th hour and possibly into and over the deadline leading to a blackout on DirecTV on March 1^st.

We never heard of these types of negotiations 10 years ago. They were dealt with behind closed doors in offices or over the phone and nobody lost a channel on their service. TV and providers came to agreements and we all lived happily. Maybe this is how a cable bill went from $20 a month back in 1980 to almost $100 today? Maybe Disney (ABC, ESPN, etc) Viacom (MTV, VH1, CBS, Nick, etc), Hearst, Universal (NBC properties,etc) got their way and we paid? I just wish that if a CBS affiliate is to pulled, we could get another until the deal was met. Ex. Get the CBS out of Boston until Channel 13 and DirecTV signed an agreement.