Scripps Channels Dropped by AT&T U-verse

KNOXVILLE/DALLAS: Food Network, HGTV, DIY Network, Cooking Channel and Great American Country have been dropped from the lineup of AT&T U-verse after the platform failed to reach a new contract agreement with Scripps Networks.

“Let me start by saying this impasse is not about money,” said John Lansing, the president of Scripps Networks. “We reached an agreement in principle with AT&T U-verse on the distribution fees we would receive for these networks well in advance of last month’s contract deadline.”

He added that AT&T refused an offer to extend the existing contract through the end of this year, in order to allow negotiations to continue and resolve outstanding issues. The remaining issues revolve around AT&T U-verse’s demands to use Scripps Networks’ video—video that was created specifically for its lifestyle networks and video that Scripps owns—in ways that Scripps says "go beyond normal business practices."

“AT&T U-verse demanded unreasonably broad video rights for emerging media where business models have not even been established,” Lansing explained. “Accepting their demands would have restrained our ability to deliver our content to our viewers in new and innovative ways.”

AT&T U-verse claims that customers have been "denied a fair deal" by Scripps, issuing a statement that said: "We’re extremely disappointed that Scripps Networks won’t provide a fair deal for AT&T customers. Our team has been working for weeks to reach a fair agreement, but Scripps Networks ultimately refused to put in writing key terms that had been agreed upon verbally, leaving our customers without a fair deal as our extended contract expired."

AT&T calls the move "yet another example of a network punishing its own viewers for leverage in programming negotiations," claiming that Scripps is demanding that AT&T pay double what other competitors pay. The statement concluded: "We will continue to fight for a fair deal to bring these channels back to our lineup because our customers deserve the programming they want, at a fair price."