CBS television channels are set to be restored Thursday to AT's DirecTV, DirecTV Now and other pay-TV customers, as the two companies reached a deal after a nearly three-week blackout.
CBS and AT said Thursday that their multi-year deal will cover the CBS-owned stations of its namesake broadcast channel, the CBS Sports Network and the Smithsonian Channel across DirecTV, DirecTV Now and U-verse, as well as the upcoming TV platforms AT hopes to launch.
(Note: CNET is owned by CBS.)
AT is aiming to launch a Netflix-like streaming service called HBO Max in the spring of 2020, but that isn't expected to carry live channels.
The blackout hit AT pay-TV customers in 17 cities -- New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta, Tampa, Seattle, Detroit, Minneapolis, Miami, Denver, Sacramento, Pittsburgh and Baltimore -- as well as more than 100 CBS stations and affiliates on DirecTV Now.
It stemmed from a dispute over the rates that AT pays CBS to carry the channels, after the companies' 2012 agreement expired last month.