Today for the first time DIRECTV NOW added a non-CBS owned and operated CBS affiliate with the addition of CBS 45 in Tulsa, Oklahoma owned by Griffin Communication. We also learned that last night DIRECTV NOW added NBC affiliate WVTM Channel 13 in Birmingham AL a Hearst Television owned NBC affiliate.
Griffin Communications owns the two largest CBS affiliates in Oklahoma including KWTV-DT Oklahoma City. It is very likely that that the CBS Oklahoma City affiliate if not live now will be live soon.
Update: We can now confirm that CBS in Oklahoma City is now live.
Hearst Television already has a few NBC affiliates live on DIRECTV NOW added last week. From the looks of it, they are continuing to slowly add more of their NBC owned affiliates around the United States. This does not mean every Hearst-owned NBC affiliate will go live today but that they will be added. Hearst Television owns 12 NBC affiliates and a host of other stations around the United States.
At the start of October DIRECTV NOW offered at least one live local in 75% of the United States. DIRECTV NOW has recently been adding many NBC and even some FOX affiliates and has likely driven that number even higher.
Earlier this year NBC struck a deal with their affiliates allowing them to negotiate with live TV services on behalf of most of their affiliates. Now it looks like we have started to see these affiliates go live on services such as Hulu and DIRECTV NOW as part of this deal.
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