DirecTV, Fox reach agreements (LAT, VAR, DH, NYT)

By Nancy Tartaglione-Moore

After a "challenging" ten days, Fox and DirecTV reached a new carriage agreement on Monday, hours ahead of the midnight deadline. According to reports, the deal extends beyond cable networks like FX to local stations that carry Fox Broadcasting Co programming including NFL games.

Per The Los Angeles Times, although the contracts for Fox's local TV stations were not up until the end of the year, DirecTV did not want to keep negotiating new deals and was pushing for an all-encompassing agreement. Also part of the pact is the Fox News Channel whose contract was originally due to expire in early 2012.

According to Variety, it is not clear if the separate pacts have been rolled into one overall deal. The trade's sources indicated that all of the deals will now terminate at the same time, though neither the duration nor the financial terms are known. Deadline sources said Fox landed healthy double-digit fee increases.

The joint statement from DirecTV and Fox read: "We both know the past 10 days have been challenging, but we're pleased that both sides could eventually come together to ensure our viewers continue to enjoy Fox programming."

The companies had been negotiating for the past month, but things recently took a nasty turn with the threat of many Fox-owned channels going dark starting today if a new contract agreement was not accepted.

The New York Times notes that the fight would have affected far more people than past scuffles which have pitted Fox owner News Corp against Cablevision and Time Warner Cable. With over 19 million subscribers, DirecTV is the second-biggest pay TV operator in the US behind Comcast.

The channels that would have been affected included FX, National Geographic, Speed, Fuel TV, Fox Soccer, Fox Soccer Plus, Fox Movie Channel, Fox Deportes, and 19 regional sports nets.