DirecTV subscribers in Bend who haven’t already bought an antenna or explored online streaming options might want to do so before the National Football League playoffs this weekend.

Local Fox affiliate KFXO, which will carry the Green Bay Packers-Atlanta Falcons game, as of Thursday was not available on the DirecTV channel lineup, nor was local NBC affiliate KTVZ. Both stations are owned by News-Press & Gazette in St. Joseph, Missouri, which is negotiating a new contract with DirecTV that will determine how much DirecTV, owned by AT&T, must pay to the broadcaster for the right to retransmit its signals.

The talks have been ongoing for months with several contract extensions in that time. But the two sides reached an impasse a week ago, forcing DirecTV to drop stations owned by News-Press & Gazette, also known as NPG. The outage also affects NPG stations in California, Colorado, Missouri, Idaho 
and Arizona.

Each side is pointing a finger at the other.

“DirecTV is not necessarily recognizing the market for our television stations,” said Ian Guthrie of NPG. “It’s tough for me to determine whether we’re going to reach agreement before the weekend.”

Meanwhile, DirecTV said late Thursday afternoon that it’s trying to come to an interim agreement in time for the Packers game.

The company has offered to compensate News-Press & Gazette for an entire day of programming on KFXO in order to make the Packers game available, according to a press statement by Robert Thun, AT&T senior vice president of content and programming. “News-Press & Gazette has repeatedly refused,” Thun said.

“As soon as we have News-Press & Gazette’s permission, we can follow any specific instructions on what time to begin Fox Sports’ NFC Championship Game coverage into our local DirecTV customers’ homes and — if News-Press & Gazette demands it — when to remove KFXO once that game has ended.

“We ask nothing more than for News-Press & Gazette to set aside our private business differences for a few hours and allow fans to enjoy their game,” Thun stated.

The outage caught football fan Allison James, of Bend, by surprise last weekend. She returned from an out-of-town trip to find that her DVR had recorded only one of four playoff games. “I’m pretty mad,” she said.

James said DirecTV offered to credit her account $5 a month for the next year and took $35 off her last bill after she threatened to switch to cable. James said she’ll probably put the $35 toward an indoor antenna so she can catch both playoff games.

The Pittsburgh Steelers-New England Patriots game will be broadcast by CBS. The local CBS affiliate is not owned by NPG, so it is not affected by the dispute.

—Reporter: 541-617-7860, kmclaughlin@bendbulletin.com

How can DirecTV subscribers 
catch the Packers-Falcons game?

Over the airwaves: KFXO is a broadcast station that can be picked up with an antenna. More information is at www.antennaweb.org.

In a bar: Sports bars commonly subscribe to both DirecTV and cable and probably wouldn’t be affected by the outage.

Online: Fox streams games through its app, Fox Sports Go. A cable or PlayStation Vue subscription is required.