CBS Warns It Could Get Blacked Out by AT&T as Talks Bog Down

Lucas Shaw, Bloomberg News

The CBS Corp. Television City studio complex stands in Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Thursday, Aug. 3, 2017. CBS is scheduled to release earnings figures on August 7. , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- CBS Corp. warned that it could get blacked out by AT&T Inc.’s DirecTV and U-verse as it struggles to reach a new contract with the largest U.S. pay-TV provider.

AT&T “continues to propose unfair terms well below those agreed to by its competitors and may drop CBS unless we agree to those terms,” the network said on Tuesday.

If no agreement is reached, DirecTV and U-verse customers in major cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago could lose CBS on 11 p.m. Pacific time on July 19, the company said. CBS is the most-watched network in the U.S.

“AT&T’s willingness to deprive its customers of valuable content has become routine over the last few weeks and months, and recent negotiations have regularly resulted in carriage disputes, blackouts and popular channels being removed from their service,” CBS said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lucas Shaw in Los Angeles at lshaw31@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net