Adam Symson Says Abc Streaming Blackout Hit 54 Stations in 36 Markets
abc streaming viewers trying to watch Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Tuesday night got a message saying the contract with Scripps had expired. DirecTV then pointed them to the, Hulu or Disney+ apps for the Stanley Cup Final or the NBA Finals.
DirecTV’s 54-station outage
54 local stations across 36 markets were affected, DirecTV said, turning a single carriage fight into a multistate blackout during one of the most watched nights on the sports calendar. Buffalo, Las Vegas, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, Detroit, Kansas City, Miami, Milwaukee, Nashville, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Tampa-St. Petersburg were among the markets hit.
Scripps CEO Adam Symson said DirecTV management was responsible for the impasse. He said DirecTV was demanding the highest rates it had ever received from a station group, while DirecTV said Scripps removed its stations from viewers in several major markets after DirecTV declined its demands.
Adam Symson on the impasse
“They’re run by private equity.” Symson said in an interview. He added, “They have MBAs running the numbers. I don’t really think they care about the work we do in the local communities and that local people actually rely on, whether it’s local news or local sports.”
“Rather than rationalize their lineups and end the carriage and payment for a bunch of zombie channels owned by bigger multibillion-dollar conglomerates that have leverage over them, they are screwing with the consumer and what the consumer actually wants to watch, which is broadcast television, local journalism, and local sports.” Symson also said. had no comment on the Scripps-DirecTV impasse.
Buffalo viewers and the apps
Buffalo sits inside the kind of market that turns a carriage dispute into a direct customer problem: viewers who expected a local broadcast had to switch devices in the middle of Game 1. For anyone caught by the blackout, DirecTV’s own instructions were the practical workaround — use, Hulu or Disney+ instead of the missing local station feed.
The cleaner read is that this was not a one-city glitch but a broad blackout spread across 36 markets. When a live championship telecast collides with a retransmission dispute that large, the customer fix is digital, not local: change platforms or miss the game.
