I think that DISH should allow AAD to keep distant nets. Why not offer both? This way those who have all 4 nets in their locals pack can still get distants for west coast or east coast if they wanted. Rv owners especially would like to be able to have distant nets. Besides , unless DISH wants another lawsuit against them, I don't see how they can violate the contract and drop AAD.
I do not expect them to violate their contract with AAD. But, no one knows the contract terms with ADD. 2 TPs are incredibly valuable. On the WA Dish has has 50 TPs and 32 leased, they have about 1 billion dollars in satellites to cover these slots. This makes each TP worth about $12 million to Dish, just in equipment, not to mention there are no other TPs available. Is AAD paying enough to lease 24 million in assets vs the return Dish could get with the space?
So, when the contract comes up for renewal will Dish renew it? Maybe they will go down to just one TP. I suspect that the contract will probably go to the end of the year at least, because it will probably take that long for Dish to work out LiL of all the nets in all the DMAs. Maybe they will just carry HD since Dish will have a lot of SD only markets.
But, of course AAD is a separate company. I do not see Dish offering distants. The question is will they continue to lease TP space to AAD (or another company) to allow them to offer distants.