Suburban fans, bars caught in dispute between Tribune, DirecTV

Champps Americana sports bar in Lincolnshire prides itself on offering major league sports for guests while they enjoy a burger and a beer. But when customers arrived on Sunday and Monday, even a cold one didn't soothe those fans or the bar's management.

Bar Manager Mike Runyan discovered that WGN programming, which included those sought-after sports programs, was pulled from its provider, DirecTV.

“When DirecTV had negotiation issues in the past with various channels, we were able to plan ahead and we used Dish Network to provide the games to our guests,” Runyan said. “But this time, it was a last-minute issue and we didn't have Dish. ... This could get very expensive.”

Despite the one-year contract, Champps, like other sports bars and individual subscribers, will need to rely on other means to get those games, including the Chicago Cubs opener , until the dispute is settled between DirecTV and Chicago-based Tribune Broadcasting Co.

This is the second time in the past six months that DirecTV subscribers have lost their favorite sports and other programming because negotiations with content providers have failed. Besides the Tribune, Comcast Sports Network (CSN), which carries the Bulls and Blackhawks as well as the Cubs and Sox, was lost last fall.

On Monday, California-based DirecTV filed a complaint against the Tribune, which owns WGN programming, saying the Chicago media company failed to negotiate in “good faith.”

The complaint, filed with the Federal Communications Commission, seeks an “immediate intervention and expedited ruling against Tribune for failing to negotiate in good faith and bringing into question whether broadcast licenses have been prematurely, and inappropriately, transferred to bankruptcy creditors,” the complaint said.

The complaint said the two parties reached an agreement in principle on March 29, two days before their agreement expired.

“The following day, however, Tribune reneged on that agreement,” the complaint said. “Tribune later confirmed that its management had been overruled by the hedge fund and investment bank creditors.”

The Tribune denied any such agreement took place, Tribune spokesman Gary Weitman said via email.

“We never reached agreement with DirecTV on all the terms of the contract — not in principle, not by handshake and not on paper,” Weitman said. “We didn't have an agreement on Thursday, March 29, and we do not have an agreement now.”

DirecTV customers in 19 markets, including Chicago, woke up Sunday without programming from Tribune. DirecTV has about 5 million customers nationwide that lost programming. The Tribune, which entered bankruptcy in December 2008, has been seeking to renegotiate the fees it receives for its programming on DirecTV.

Weitman said the Tribune and DirecTV have been negotiating a complex, multiyear contract for months in order to carry its local television stations and WGN America.

“The contract is complex, in part, because it covers 23 local television stations with varying programming in 19 different markets, large and small, as well as our national cable network, WGN America,” Weitman said. “Over the course of any negotiation, parties may agree in principle on some terms and disagree on others, but it takes closure on all terms by both parties to reach an agreement.”

Claims of “bad faith” and “outrageous conduct” are nothing more than negotiating tactics in an attempt to unfairly prevent Tribune from receiving fair market compensation from DirecTV for carriage of Tribune's local television stations and WGN America, Weitman said.

“Tribune seeks an agreement with DirecTV that is similar to those DirecTV already has in place with hundreds of other content providers,” Weitman said.

Sports fans around the suburbs likely will feel the pinch this week, including Bob Podgorski of Hoffman Estates who has DirecTV at his summer home in Fox Lake and when he's in Canada on vacation.

“WGN is the source for sports and keeping in contact with Chicago news when up in the wilds,” said Podgorski. “Granted, it is a fishing resort in Canada, but, in the middle of nowhere. That satellite dish brings connectivity daily to about 100 fishermen and, in the fall, hunters.”

He said it is a “significant loss” without WGN.

“Both parties should be keeping in mind their appreciative and dedicated audiences, as well as advertisers, and perhaps a little less greed and their fat purses,” said Podgorski.