For DirecTV viewers, WSKY-TV channel 4 goes dark

CHESAPEAKE

DirecTV subscribers in Hampton Roads may turn on their sets Thursday and discover a piece of local TV fare has vanished.

WSKY-TV, based in Chesapeake, missed its deadline to reapply for "must-carry" status with DirecTV, so the satellite service sent WSKY a letter saying the independent station would be dropped from the line up, station owner Glenn Holterhaus said Tuesday.

After missing the deadline, the station offered DirecTV "retransmission consent," granting the satellite company permission to transmit WSKY's signal at no cost, Holterhaus said. DirecTV declined, he said.

"I just don't understand why they would pick on somebody like us," Holterhaus said. "If we were a 24-hour shopping channel, I would understand that."

The situation with WSKY is similar to the dispute that threatens to knock WVEC-TV from the Charter Communications cable TV lineup in Suffolk, Franklin, the Eastern Shore and Outer Banks. Those negotiations have focused on how much Charter would pay WVEC to carry its signal.

"We haven't asked for any money," Holterhaus said. "It befuddles me that, since we're not a network affiliate, they don't feel like we're important."

Robert Mercer, director of public relations for DirecTV, said in an e-mail that since WSKY did not renew its must-carry status or negotiate a new agreement, the satellite provider could not legally transmit the signal.

"Local stations have the right to request carriage and must notify us by a certain date if they wish to be carried," Mercer wrote. "WSKY failed to do that."

WSKY began broadcasting in 2001, and since then has elbowed its way into the local TV arena by getting a slot on Cox Communications, Dish Network and DirecTV. It offers popular reruns of shows such as "Frasier" and "In the Heat of the Night" as well as an alternative platform for sports fans in the region.

This year, it will broadcast 20 Old Dominion University and Colonial Athletic Association basketball games, along with Norfolk Tides games and coverage of the Oceana Air Show and Azalea Festival. In previous years, WSKY has broadcast Southeastern Conference football games and ACC basketball games.

Mercer said he doesn't know what will replace WSKY on DirecTV, where it occupies Channel 4, but he said there is no chance of a reversal.

Holterhaus pointed out that DirecTV subscribers who want to keep WSKY have options beyond an antenna: Cox, Dish Network and now Verizon FiOS, which has picked up the channel.

"I'm a DirecTV subscriber, too," Holterhaus said. "For 12 years."

Might that change now?

Yes, he said. He's going to drop them, like they dropped him.

Lon Wagner, (757) 446-2341, lon.wagner@pilotonline.com