Fall Sun Outages Affect nexTV
Twice each year, customers across the cable TV, satellite TV, and streaming television industry may experience brief interruptions caused by a natural phenomenon known as a sun outage or solar interference. These events are predictable, temporary, and affect television providers throughout North America.
What Is a Sun Outage?
Many television channels are delivered to providers through communications satellites orbiting above the Earth. During the spring and fall, the sun’s position aligns directly behind certain satellites for a few minutes each day. When this happens, the sun’s powerful radio frequency energy overwhelms the much weaker signal coming from the satellite.
As a result, the satellite signal can temporarily fade or disappear until the sun moves out of alignment. This is known as a sun outage. Think of it like trying to see a flashlight pointed at you while someone shines a much brighter spotlight directly behind it. The flashlight is still working, but it’s difficult to see because of the brighter source behind it.
When Will Fall 2026 Sun Outages Occur?
Fall sun outages are expected to occur from Saturday, October 3 through Saturday, October 10, 2026. Outages may begin as early as 10:45 a.m. Pacific Time and conclude by approximately 2:15 p.m. Pacific Time, depending on the specific channel and satellite involved. Individual channels are typically affected for about 5 to 10 minutes at a time. Channels are received from different satellites, so not all channels will be affected at the same time. One channel may experience an interruption while another continues to operate normally.
What Will Customers Notice?
During a sun outage, you may experience video quality issues affecting Live, Replay, and CloudDVR recordings. These symptoms are temporary and should resolve on their own once the sun moves out of alignment with the satellite. A list of what you may experience on your TV is below.
- Picture pixelation or tiling
- Frozen video
- Audio interruptions
- A black screen
- A message such as “One Moment Please” or “No Signal”
Does This Affect nexTV and Streaming Services?
Yes. While we historically associate sun outages with traditional cable TV, they can also affect streaming television services when the underlying television channels originate from the same satellite feeds used throughout the industry. All TV providers receiving satellite-fed channels experience sun outages.
Which Channels Are Not Affected?
Sun outages only affect channels delivered by satellite. Many local broadcast stations are received through over-the-air sources and are not subject to the same satellite interference. HCC’s local channels, including stations such as KOMO, KING, KIRO, KCTS, KONG, TVW, Telemundo, and several others, are generally not affected by sun outages.
Is There Anything I Need To Do?
No action is required. Sun outages are a normal occurrence in the television industry and are not caused by issues in your home. In most cases, the best course of action is simply to wait a few minutes for the interruption to pass. Service will automatically return once the satellite signal is no longer competing with the sun’s radio energy. If you experience television issues outside the published outage dates or if problems continue long after a brief interruption, please contact HCC Technical Support so we can investigate. Local channel issues, in particular, are generally not related to sun outages and should be reported.
Looking Ahead
While sun outages can be frustrating, the good news is that they are predictable, short-lived, and occur only twice each year. HCC will continue to share reminders through social media and customer communications throughout the outage period. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work with our programming providers during this annual industry-wide event.