AT&T, American Spirit Media reach agreement

WUPW to return to U-verse and DirecTV subscribers

1/31/2018

Good news for AT&T U-verse and DirecTV subscribers: WUPW-TV, Channel 36, is available again for the first time in months.

“AT&T and American Spirit Media reached a new agreement that resulted in American Spirit’s WUPW-FOX returning to Toledo’s DirecTV and U-verse customers’ homes,” an AT&T Ohio spokesman emailed The Blade Wednesday morning.

WUPW General Manager Patrick Donnelly said his station returned to U-verse and DirecTV sometime Tuesday evening.

“We’re pleased to be back on the air with DirecTV and AT&T U-verse,” Mr. Donnelly added, “and we thank all of our viewers for their patience.”

AT&T, which owns DirecTV and U-verse, and WUPW parent company American Spirit Media LLC, which owns six other Fox and CW affiliates in six other states, have been in a lengthy retransmission consent stalemate, with AT&T, beginning on Sept. 21, no longer carrying American Spirit Media’s local and network broadcasts, including Channel 36.

By law, a cable or satellite owner must have the permission of the broadcaster’s owner to carry a station’s signal.