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WSFL Pulled From DirecTV Line Up

FT. LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – DirecTV subscribers in South Florida may miss upcoming episodes "Vampire Diaries" and "America's Top Model" if the company can't work out a deal with WSFL-Ch. 39's parent company Tribune Co.

The two companies failed to meet a contract deadline on Saturday, according to The Sun-Sentinel and Tribune's programming was taken off the satellite TV service.

At issue is how much DirecTV would compensate WSFL and 18 other Tribune stations. According to Nils Larsen, president of Tribune Co., they wanted an agreement with DirecTV which would have amounted to less than a penny a day per subscriber.

Since an agreement could not be reached, DirecTV was forced to take down the programming by federal law.

Last January, DirecTV had a similar disagreement with Sunbeam Television Co., the parent company of WSVN – Ch. 7 and a television station in Boston.

Both channels were blacked out to an estimated 270,000 viewers for nearly two weeks before an agreement was reached.

The Sun-Sentinel contributed to this report.

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