Are you ready for Super Bowl? DirecTV feud resolved.

• Position: BUSINESS

Byline: Brian Lee

DirecTV customer George Gillis of Fitchburg turned on Channel 7 last night and, to his surprise, he got a picture.

An agreement was reached last night to end the blackout on DirecTV of WHDH Channel 7, which is carrying the Super Bowl on Feb. 5, and WLVI Channel 56 in the Greater Boston area, which includes the Worcester area, DirecTV said in a statement.

Sunbeam Television Corp. owns Channel 7 and Channel 56, as well as WSVN, a Fox station in Miami.

DirecTV and Sunbeam were embroiled in a retransmission feud, with the three stations blacked out since Jan. 14. DirecTV spokesman Tom Tyrer said the heart of the dispute was Sunbeam wanting a 300 percent increase in its retransmission consent fee.

"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 said. "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."

The three Sunbeam-owned stations are now available for...