DirecTV Inc. subscribers in 19 U.S. markets lost access to certain programming late Saturday, after Tribune Broadcasting said it failed to reach a settlement with the satellite television provider in their contract negotiations.

Tribune Broadcasting said in a statement that without a deal in place, DirecTV was barred by federal law from carrying the signal of Tribune’s local television stations after midnight, when their agreement expired.

The affected markets include New York, Chicago, New Orleans and Philadelphia.

Tribune president Nils Larsen called the situation “extremely unfortunate.’’

In its own statement, DirecTV said it had hoped Tribune would allow its programming to remain up while negotiations continue. But as it struck midnight in each time U.S. time zone, Tribune channels carried by DirecTV went blank.

Earlier, DirecTV said that it had accepted the financial terms that Tribune’s management offered it by telephone two days ago. But Tribune came out with its own statement shortly after, saying it had not reached a deal or come to terms with DirecTV on any aspect of the contract.

DirecTV fired back, saying in another statement that it had a handshake deal with Tribune on Thursday with an agreed upon rate for their channels.

“Their actions are the true definition of `bad faith’ in every sense of the term,’’ DirecTV said.

The satellite TV provider also wondered whether Tribune was having difficulty negotiating because of its bankruptcy process.

“Threatening station blackouts to extract an exorbitant fee for all of Tribune’s content may provide an improved return for certain banks and hedge funds, but is not in the interest of its viewers and is not a cure for bankruptcy,’’ DirectTV said.

Negotiations have been ongoing for months.