As of 6:30 Wednesday, the signal for the Columbia Fox station, KQFX, on DirecTV was turned on for the World Series game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox.
DirecTV officials said this was done just so Mid-Missouri customers could see the first game of the series.
They said the signal was turned on for the time period of the game and a short time after its completion. Then, the signal was taken off again.
"We'll take this one game at a time, but hopefully this is a good sign, said DirecTV spokesman Thomas Tyrer. "We continue to actively negotiate to get a deal done."
KQFX is owned by the same company that owns KMIZ and MyZouTV. The stations have been off the air on DirecTV since earlier this month after the two sides could not reach an agreement on rights and fees.
Station officials have said the negotiations involve the price DirecTV is willing to pay to rebroadcast the stations' signals on the Internet.
The signals have still been available free over the air, on local cable systems and on Dish Network.
"Getting permission to have the World Series (Wednesday night) was a good sign, and likely a precursor for a final agreement as soon as Thursday," Tyrer said. "I cannot promise that, but we're moving in the right direction. If that's the case, then none of the other games would be at risk."
Earlier coverage, posted at 6:49 p.m. Wednesday:
As of 6:30 today, the signal for the Columbia Fox station, KQFX, on DirecTV was turned on for the World Series game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox.
DirecTV officials said this was done just so Mid-Missouri customers could see the first game of the series.
They said the signal will be turned on for the time period of the game and a short time after its completion, then it will go off again.
"We'll take this one game at a time, but hopefully this is a good sign, said Directv spokesman Thomas Tyrer. "We continue to actively negotiate to get a deal done."
KQFX is owned by the same company that owns KMIZ (ABC 17) and MyZouTV, and the stations have been off the air on DirecTV since earlier this month after the two sides could not reach an agreement on rights and fees.