CBS Contract Deadline With AT&T Approaches

While AT&T waits to close its acquisition of satellite-television operator DirecTV, AT&T's own pay-TV unit U- Verse has some unfinished business with CBS. The current U-Verse programming agreement for CBS and its cable channels, including Showtime, expires on June 30. The looming contract dispute is also raising questions about the future of the pay-TV distributor after AT&T closes its acquisition of satellite broadcaster DirecTV.

Apparently, CBS is frustrated at what they see as lack of interest from AT&T to move discussions past a preliminary stage and expects customers will lose access to its channels. The bigger concern at CBS is that the lack of interest is a precursor to shutting U-Verse down and thus removing a pay-TV service from the market. However, apparently the two sides are "knee deep" in negotiations and an agreement is expected to be reached before the end of the month.