DirecTV subscribers in New England who wanted to watch WCVB (Channel 5), WFXT (25), and WMUR (9) on Sunday had to reach for the rabbit ears.

Hearst Television and Cox Media Group, which own the stations, began 2017 without new agreements for the satellite television provider to continue carrying their stations across the country, officials said.

By late Sunday afternoon, DirecTV said it had reached a deal to get WFXT and other Cox stations back on its customers’ televisions.

As with similar fights in the past, the dispute was apparently over money.

DirecTV said earlier Sunday that station owners were demanding a significant increase in the fees to carry the stations starting in 2017. So DirecTV says it was forced to drop the stations from its lineup Sunday morning pending new deals.

“We asked Cox Broadcasting and Hearst Television to allow our customers to keep watching WFXT, WCVB, and WMUR while we try to finalize this behind-the-scenes business agreement, but they each refused,’’ DirecTV said in a statement.

AT&T, which owns DirecTV, has 25.3 million video subscribers nationwide. The company declined to say how many customers were affected in New England.

Hearst, which owns WCVB in Boston and WMUR in New Hampshire, said DirecTV was not willing to pay a reasonable fee.

“Unfortunately, the DirecTV negotiating team is seeking the right to carry our stations at below-market rates, which is neither fair nor reasonable given the significant investments we have made to deliver top-tier programming to our viewers,’’ said Bill Fine, WCVB president and general manager, in a statement.

Cox, which owns WFXT in Boston, said before that company resolved its dispute that the impasse also affected customers of AT&T U-Verse, a product similar to Verizon’s FiOS service, which competes with local cable television providers in selected markets.

Todd Wallack can be reached at twallack@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @twallack.