WMAR Goes Dark On DIRECTV

Baltimore viewers who subscribe to DIRECTV are once again without WMAR-TV, after parent company The E.W. Scripps Company and DIRECTV failed to reach a new retransmission consent agreement. The dispute resulted in the removal of 54 Scripps owned television stations from DIRECTV’s satellite, streaming, and U-verse platforms.

The blackout means DIRECTV customers in the Baltimore can no longer watch WMAR‘s local newscasts or ABC network programming through the service. Both sides are blaming the other for the impasse, with DIRECTV accusing Scripps of demanding excessive fee increases and Scripps arguing it deserves fair compensation for its local programming and news coverage.

It’s the latest carriage battle involving WMAR. The station was also removed from DIRECTV during the Disney-DIRECTV dispute in September 2024. More recently, WMAR disappeared from Comcast in March as part of a separate retransmission dispute between Scripps and Comcast. That blackout lasted six weeks before the station was restored last month. No timetable has been announced for when WMAR might return to DIRECTV.