KDKA returns to local DirecTV customers ahead of Steelers season

Megan Tomasic | Friday, August 9, 2019 11:40 a.m.

DirecTV customers, break out the black and gold. The Pittsburgh Steelers — starting with Friday’s first preseason game — will be back on your television thanks to an agreement reached by CBS Corp. and AT&T.

The multi-year agreement, reached Thursday, ended a three-week blackout for viewers, which started as a disagreement over “unprecedented increases” in fees, The New York Times reported in late July. The Times said that CBS, which had been paid a little over $2 a month for each AT&T subscriber, wanted to raise the fee to about $3.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed in a news release on the CBS website.

Now, local viewers are able to watch CBS affiliate KDKA-TV — which airs many Steelers games — along with CBS Sports Network and the Smithsonian Channel. The agreement impacts about 6.5 million DirecTV customers nationwide, 26 CBS-owned stations and 17 markets. AT&T officials were unable to provide how many Pittsburgh-area customers were impacted by the outage.

At the time of the incident, a link on KDKA’s website informed viewers the blackout could be lengthy and urged customers to take action. CBS also directed impacted viewers to access broadcasts via CBS All Access, a subscription video on-demand streaming service; and on CBSN, CBS SPORTS HQ and ET LIVE, its free video on-demand streaming channels.

Now that an agreement has been reached, the page reads, “Great news! CBS and DirecTV / AT&T U-Verse have reached an agreement. Thanks to all our loyal viewers for your support.”