DirecTV is offering some customers a national feed of NBC programming

In cities where one major broadcaster owns the local NBC affiliate, DirecTV is substituting the channel with a national NBC feed.

(Photo via Wikimedia Commons, Graphic by The Desk)

When DirecTV subscribers in Austin tuned in to watch the National Football League’s (NFL) kickoff game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles last Thursday, they may have noticed something a bit unusual after the game: Local news from another city.

It wasn’t a glitch — Cowboys fans in the Texas capital who subscribe to DirecTV’s new genre-based sports package, called MySports, were watching a national feed of NBC programming, part of a unique arrangement between the pay TV provider and Comcast’s NBC Universal that has been tested at least once in the past.