TRIBUNE & DISH reach an agreement

[navychop]

My bet is, that in today's world, Dish had a bigger smile.

 

[MikeD-C05]

I may have missed what you are asking.... were they wanting their local WGN to be carried nationally along with the National WGN?

According to the demands that Tribune wanted and DISH did NOT , yes they wanted DISH to pay for a local WGN in each of their dmas in addition to the national WGN ,meaning that DISH would pay twice for the same channel. This is what held the whole thing up for 3 months.

 

[STDog]

According to the demands that Tribune wanted and DISH did NOT , yes they wanted DISH to pay for a local WGN in each of their dmas in addition to the national WGN ,meaning that DISH would pay twice for the same channel.

WGNA (the national cable channel) is not the same programming as WGN (local channel 9 in Chicago).
Paying for both would not be paying for the same channel twice.

Can you share a link to the supposed info? I never saw anything suggestion WGN becoming a national channel like the old superstations. I only ever saw comments about WGNA and increasing the price for it as part of the retrans deal for all the Tribune owned locals.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Maybe I misunderstood the whole thing. I guess after reading post #739 in the original Tribune /DISH dispute thread again , that Tribune wanted to link and tie their locals carriage with the national cable channel WGN. So that would be forced bundling where you had to take WGN if you wanted Tribune local channels and it would inflate the price of both . So DISH of course didn't want that and they held out for three months. That is why Charlie said that the WGN national cable channel wasn't worth that big of an increase due to lack of good original programming. I'm still betting that Tribune blinked first. But either way the customer is the one that will pay the price for all of it.

 

[STDog]

Right, but the national channel in question was WGN America, not a new channel and not WGN9 (Chicago local).

 

[MikeD-C05]

Right, but the national channel in question was WGN America, not a new channel and not WGN9 (Chicago local).

yes.

 

[jerryez]

Look at the price of locals in the Flex packs. They are $10. When locals were sold as a pack before, they were $5. Looks like a big price increase to me.

 

[Tampa8]

Maybe I misunderstood the whole thing. I guess after reading post #739 in the original Tribune /DISH dispute thread again , that Tribune wanted to link and tie their locals carriage with the national cable channel WGN. So that would be forced bundling where you had to take WGN if you wanted Tribune local channels and it would inflate the price of both . So DISH of course didn't want that and they held out for three months. That is why Charlie said that the WGN national cable channel wasn't worth that big of an increase due to lack of good original programming. I'm still betting that Tribune blinked first. But either way the customer is the one that will pay the price for all of it.

That synopsis is correct. If DISH wanted to have the locals owned by Tribune they had to negotiate for the National WGN. But we wouldn't see the effects of the outcome of being bundled because bundled or not the National WGN is already carried by DISH as is the Tribune locals. DISH may still carry the National WGN but maybe they came to a separate agreement on it and unbundled it - maybe they didn't. Cost was of course another issue so there I have no doubt DISH did not pay what Tribune wanted during the stalemate -OR DISH got something else in return. As we now see part of negotiations in general have been about DISH building their Flex Pack and add ons.

 

[budda]

"Warren" says to visit mydish.com/thanks to get a free ppv movie as a token of their appreciation.

Got mine. Thanks! No email. But the certificate is in my account!

 

[lfp302]

Gracenote is still not updated past the next hour or so...

 

[KAB]

Gracenote is still not updated past the next hour or so...

All good for the next week, here.

 

[lfp302]

All good for the next week, here.

Guess I'll shedule another daily update for a few minutes from now. Maybe that'll do it.

 

[Blackhawks]

Just as an FYI, Tribune announced WGN TV9 was dropping their CW Affiliation back in early May. That decision was due to them no longer wanting to sub-contract conflicting Cubs, Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks games to WCIU and/or WPWR. in Chicago.

 

[wkomorow]

It could also be that Tribune wanted the national WGN to be placed on a channel under 100 and grouped with locals. Growing up, WGN, WPIX, and WSBK, and WTBS were all grouped with the local stations as distinct from cable channels.

 

[Darrell S]

I'm glad you guys got your channels back, but it looks I got screwed in this settlement. Before the dispute, they were providing me with WPIX on chan. 916 because they don't uplink the CW in my small Tx. DMA. I guess that isn't coming back. I wish they would still sell me superstations if they refuse to provide my local CW.

 

[Peter Parker]

I hate these press releases.

It's like two primary election candidates from the same party going at each other's throats with mudslinging and attack ads, but then once the primary election is over, they both play nice to provide support for the party.

I remember when that used to happen.

 

[DishSubLA]

Look at the price of locals in the Flex packs. They are $10. When locals were sold as a pack before, they were $5. Looks like a big price increase to me.

The Channel owners want something in return for not taking all their other channels like MVPD's are forced to with traditional sat and cable. .

 

[DishSubLA]

It could also be that Tribune wanted the national WGN to be placed on a channel under 100 and grouped with locals. Growing up, WGN, WPIX, and WSBK, and WTBS were all grouped with the local stations as distinct from cable channels.

But that is not a deal breaker in negotiations; often done at the request of the channel as part of goodwill upon striking a new deal.

 

[DishSubLA]

Persoanlly, I think Tribune did not want to endure revenue drops when the real season of NFL begins.

 

[Tampa8]

It could also be that Tribune wanted the national WGN to be placed on a channel under 100 and grouped with locals. Growing up, WGN, WPIX, and WSBK, and WTBS were all grouped with the local stations as distinct from cable channels.

Because then WGN was a superstation and was grouped with other Superstaions. There is no reason to want that now since no one offers that group of stations anymore. DISH has it only for customers who are grandfathered. I would say there is near zero chance channel placement played any role in the blackout. Negotiations maybe, not for an actual blackout.