Fans Breathe a Sigh of Relief: the Bowl's Back on DirecTV

DirecTV customers and New England Patriots fans can breathe a sigh of relief, as DirecTV and Sunbeam reached an agreement earlier on Thursday.

For more than two weeks, the dispute between Sunbeam and DirecTV had left about 200,000 DirecTV subscribers in the Boston TV market without access to NBC and the CW network programming, according to Boston.com. WHDH, the NBC affiliate in Boston, will broadcast the Superbowl, so without an agreement, those people would not have been able to see the game.

With this past weekend's AFC win by the New England Patriots, and urged the two companies to come to terms before the Superbowl would be blacked out in Boston and Florida.

"We are pleased to have reached an agreement to end the Sunbeam blackout, and regret that any of our customers were forced into the middle of a business dispute where they should never have been in the first place," DirecTV officials posted on their website. "We believe, like many, the public interest is best served by allowing customers to keep their local broadcast stations as we negotiate future agreements, rather than being denied access by broadcast stations and used as leverage in what should be a private business matter."

DirecTV had reported that Sunbeam had been asking for a 300 percent increase in retransmission fees, and during the negotiations local channels 7 and 56 were removed from the Directv lineup.

Congressman Jim McGovern, who urged the companies to come to an agreement, reported on his Facebook page, "Thrilled that DirectTV and Sunbeam have reached an agreement allowing consumers to watch the Super Bowl...and plenty of other TV!"

As of the agreement on Wednesday, both channels have been restored.