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DirecTV’s Local N.F.L. Blackout Brings Out Angry Rob Lowe
By JONAH ENGEL BROMWICHJAN. 15, 2017

Rob Lowe has appeared in nearly a dozen DirecTV commercials.

So when the actor on Saturday accused the satellite company, as well as his local Fox affiliate, of letting greed interrupt his enjoyment of the N.F.L. playoffs, his outrage drew attention.

“Fox and DirecTV have blocked out the Seattle vs. Atlanta game in my area,” Mr. Lowe posted on Twitter, using abbreviations, handles and hashtags where appropriate. “Stop the greed and let the fans see the game!!”

The actor went on to parody his DirecTV ads, in which he typically plays two versions of himself: the first, a normal, suave version, happy to be subscribed to DirecTV, and the second, a bizarro version, unhappy to have cable. (Examples of the second type include “crazy hairy Rob Lowe,” “super creepy Rob Lowe” and “poor-decision-making Rob Lowe.”)

“Hi, I’m Rob Lowe,” he wrote in a second post. “And I’M “Screwed Over” Rob Lowe, with DirecTV that cuts off my abiliy to watch NFL games during the playoffs!”

Mr. Lowe later deleted that tweet, though not before others, whom he eagerly promoted on his own feed, reposted it, with one calling him a “national hero.”

“Finally, a celebrity opinion we care to hear!!” another said.

Mr. Lowe may have been unable to watch the game because of a dispute between DirecTV and News-Press and Gazette or NPG, a Missouri-based company that owns various network affiliates in Mr. Lowe’s market, as well as dozens of others in the West and the Midwest. The contract between the two companies expired in early January.

Disputes such as these are not unusual, and they often cut off coverage of sports events.

According to The Desert Sun, Mike Stutz, a general manager at one of the affected stations, said in a statement, “DirecTV refuses to pay a fair value for our programming.” And NPG appealed directly to viewers, setting up a web page to encourage them to demand that DirecTV “get to the negotiating table to settle this dispute.”

DirecTV fired back, The Desert Sun reported. Its statement blamed the problems on NPG, saying that the company “has suspended its stations briefly from our customers and threatened others before.”

DirecTV, which was acquired by AT&T in summer 2015, is the country’s largest satellite provider, and many of its past advertisements have promoted its extensive professional football programming.

Mr. Lowe did not miss much of a game on Saturday. The Falcons defeated the Seahawks with relative ease, 36-20.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/15/sports/football/directtv-nfl-playoff-blackout-rob-lowe.html?