Belo stations will remain on DirecTV.

In an 11th hour announcement–similar to the one DirecTV and Fox made a day earlier–the satellite provider reported late Tuesday that it had reached a new retrans agreement with Belo, ending talk of a possible blackout.

“We have reached a long-term agreement with Belo that will allow our customers to continue to enjoy their favorite channels and shows,” DirecTV announced in a statement.  “These disputes should never involve viewers and we appreciate our customers’ patience as we worked to successfully complete this agreement.”

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

DirecTV subscribers in markets like Dallas, Phoenix, St. Louis, and Portland may soon have one less option on their TV dials.

Belo–owner of WFAA in Dallas; KTVK in Phoenix; KMOV in St. Louis; and KGW in Portland, OR; as well as several other stations across the country–has yet to reach a new carriage agreement with DirecTV as the existing one is set to expire at midnight, tonight. Read more

Belo Television and DirecTV are facing a November 1 deadline to come to an agreement on a retransmission-consent deal.

Belo claims their 20 stations (view a list of them here)are undervalued by DirecTV. “They pay channels with far fewer viewers more,” Doug Armstrong, general manager of Belo’s KTVB in Boise, told the Idaho Statesman.

Belo started notifying their viewers of the dispute with commercials earlier this week. DirecTV, which says on their website that negotiations with Belo are ongoing,  issued a statement to the Dallas Observer disputing the notion that viewers are at risk of losing the stations. Read more

Steve McIntosh, a vice president and general manager at Belo, was fatally gunned down on Friday evening in front of his three-year-old daughter.

The shooting occurred as McIntosh was picking his daughter up from her Arlington montessori school, according to Belo’s WFAA (video above).

The suspected gunman, who committed suicide following the shooting, was a University of Texas at Arlington student who had recently sought counseling from McIntosh’s wife, a UTA staff-member.

McIntosh oversaw advertising and financial services for Belo’s group of stations.  He began his broadcasting career in 1990 as an accounting assistant with Tulsa’s KOTV, a Belo station at the time, and went on to hold management positions at WFAA and KIRO, before moving on to become a staffer with the stations’ parent company.

Belo, which owns and operates 20 stations in 15 markets across the country, announced on Tuesday that it saw a 20% gain in total revenue for the fourth quarter of 2010, compared to the same period in 2009.

Much of Belo’s fourth quarter success can be attributed to a spike in political advertising.

“Fourth quarter’s near record political revenue of $35.7 million led the Company to a 22 percent increase in spot revenue and a 20 percent increase in total revenue for the fourth quarter, providing a strong finish to an outstanding year of revenue growth,” said Dunia Shive, Belo’s president and CEO, in making the announcement.

Overall, spot revenue was up 18% for the entire year, with local spot up 6.1% and national spot up 16%.

Belo predicts more revenue growth for its stations, which include WFAA in Dallas-Forth Worth and KING in Seattle. Read more

New Orleans’s WWL has picked a replacement at news director for Chris Slaughter, who was let go last year after 30 years with the CBS-affiliate.

Bill Siegel, who is currently the assistant news director at Milwaukee’s WISN, has been chosen to lead the WWL newsroom.

The move, first reported by Rick Gevers, ends a search that began when WWL fired Slaughter in November.  The station has been mum on what led to Slaughter’s dismissal.  He had served as WWL’s news director since 2006.

Mike Hoss, WWL’s lead anchor, had been managing news operations as the Belo-owned station conducted its search.

Coming to WWL will represent a return to Belo for Siegel.  Before joining WISN, Siegel worked as an executive producer for Belo’s KMOV in St. Louis.