Tribune Broadcasting Reaches Agreement With DirectTV

DirecTV and Tribune have reached a retransmission consent deal for DirecTV to continue carrying all of Tribune's local stations and WGN America for the next five years. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"We're pleased that Tribune and their creditors now recognize that all DirecTV wanted from day one was to pay fair market rates for their channels," said Derek Chang, executive vice president of Content, Strategy and Development, DirecTV. "It's unfortunate that Tribune was willing to hold our customers hostage in an attempt to extract excessive rates, but in the end we reached a fair deal at market rates similar to what we originally agreed to on March 29. On behalf of our customers, we are very happy to close the deal and put this behind us."

Tribune restored all of their local signals and WGN America to DirecTV customers at approximately 9 p.m. ET.

Five million American homes blacked out from their local broadcaster cries out for an examination in Washington, D.C of the decades old telecom law that encourages these impasses.

About TRIBUNE

TRIBUNE is one of the country's leading multimedia companies, operating businesses in broadcasting, publishing, and interactive. The company's broadcasting group owns or operates 23 television stations, WGN America on national cable and Chicago's WGN-AM. In publishing, Tribune's leading daily newspapers include the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, Sun Sentinel (South Florida), Orlando Sentinel, Hartford Courant, The Morning Call and Daily Press. Popular news and information websites complement Tribune's print and broadcast properties and extend the company's nationwide audience.

About DirecTV

DirecTV (NASDAQ: DTV) is one of the world's leading providers of digital television entertainment services delivering a premium video experience through state-of-the-art technology, unmatched programming and industry leading customer service to 32 million customers in the U.S. and Latin America. In the U.S., DirecTV offers its 19.9 million customers access to more than 170 HD channels and Dolby-Digital(R) 5.1 theater-quality sound, access to exclusive sports programming such as NFL SUNDAY TICKET(TM), Emmy-award winning technology and higher customer satisfaction than the leading cable companies for 11 years running. DirecTV Latin America, through its subsidiaries and affiliated companies in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, and other Latin American countries, leads the pay-TV category in technology, programming and service, delivering an unrivaled digital television experience to 12 million customers. DirecTV sports and entertainment properties include three Regional Sports Networks (Northwest, Rocky Mountain and Pittsburgh) as well as a 60 percent interest in Game Show Network. For the most up-to-date information on DirecTV, please visit www.DirecTV.com.

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