Josh Allen could be coming to the rescue of Buffalo Bills fans who are worried they won’t be able to watch regular season Bills games on WIVB-TV (Channel 4) because of a dispute between the owner of the CBS affiliate, Nexstar, and DirecTV that started in July.
In another example of Allen’s star power in commercials, the quarterback joins CBS analyst Tony Romo in a humorous campaign for the streaming service Paramount+ set in a fictional college English literature class.
Romo plays a professor who uses Shakespeare in offering the deal, while Allen appears via Zoom to deliver two lines as they “teach” that the NFL ON CBS streams live games carried in local markets on Paramount+ all season long, including Super Bowl 58.
The campaign runs through Sept. 20 and includes a 12-month subscription offer for $2.50 per month for the Paramount+ Essential plan. However, the Essential package doesn’t include local CBS stations, which are available on other Paramount+ packages for a higher cost. A 12-month subscription for Paramount+ with Showtime is $5 per month and would include WIVB.
The ad can be seen on YouTube.
The Bills preseason games against Indianapolis and Pittsburgh were available on the regular Paramount+ package via WIVB, as will Saturday’s preseason finale in Chicago because Nexstar has a separate deal with Paramount+.
Late Monday, a CBS spokesman said Saturday’s preseason finale will also be carried on the less expensive Paramount+ Essential if you take Romo and Allen’s offer. CBS had earlier said that wouldn't be the case,
I wish I could answer all the reader queries on when the Nexstar-DirecTV dispute will end.
It is a national issue that impacts Nexstar stations that can be affiliated with CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox stations that carry NFL games across the country.
I’ve operated under the assumption that the dispute over how much DirecTV would pay Nexstar to carry its stations would likely end at the start of the NFL regular season.
In the meantime, DirecTV says customers can enter their ZIP code at TVPromise.com to see if they are eligible for a $10 credit. If so, that would cover four months of the Paramount+ Essential plan at $2.50 a month or two months of the Paramount+ with Showtime plan.
DirecTV fans without Paramount+ didn’t miss much in Saturday’s 27-15 Bills loss to Pittsburgh.
A series of picture glitches almost seemed like the station was telling fans to stop watching a game in which the Bills were quickly down 14-0 and offensive line problems had Allen running for his life.
WIVB General Manager Joe Abouzeid was waiting Monday morning for answers on what happened at the station’s hub to cause the repeated picture problem.
Bad Plan, Good Recovery: The danger of WKBW-TV’s practice of recording some newscasts rather than carry them live was apparent Thursday when its 11 p.m. newscast failed to even mention the death of Rick Jeanneret, the Buffalo Sabres’ legendary play-by-play announcer. But the station made a good recovery by doing an excellent job devoting 10 minutes to Jeanneret's impact at the top of its 6 p.m. newscast Friday.
Trivia Time: Who was the play-by-play voice on television during the Buffalo Sabres’ first season? Dave Hodge. Ted Darling, the original voice of the Sabres, did the games that season on radio and started doing the games on television in the second season after Hodge left to become a studio host for CBC’s "Hockey Night in Canada." Jeanneret’s 51-year career broadcasting Sabres games started in radio in the team’s second season when Darling moved to television.
