Dish has dropped local ABC- prorated credit?

pparry

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
Nov 17, 2006
79
1
I live in Sioux City area. Dish and local ABC affiliate, KCAU, couldn't agree on new carriage terms so it went off air on July 31. Since that time Dish has filled that channel with a 20 minute video loop that talks about how unreasonable KCAU is and gives a listing of businesses that advertise on KCAU and directs Dish subscribers to contact KCAU or businesses advertising on KCAU directly to express frustration. KCAU in response has posted on their website that Dish is unreasonable and says that local subscribers should ask Dish to prorate local channel cost. I would guess that asking Dish to prorate the local channel fee is a big waste of time.

My question however is if Dish will again provide guide data for KCAU for my over the air signal? They do provide it for all my other stations but now for KCAU it just says important programming notice (a reference to their video loop). If I can still record KCAU over the air it wouldn't be too bad- but without guide data it's tough to use the DVR effectively. Does anyone know if or how long Dish usually takes to resume showing guide data in this situation?

Thanks.
 
If it's only one channel, you'll just have to use a manual timer... I've done it for years because until recently, dish didn't carry my DMA HD's & the ones I receive OTA are from out of state. Even now, my wife can tie up both sat tuners in the blink of an eye & I'm still sitting up a manual timer for what I want on OTA... No biggie, really, at least our recievers will record 3 at a time :)
 
They will show the guide data for the OTA channel when they add the channel back to their lineup.

That's what I'm worried about- they both are active pretty nasty towards one another. It would stink to use manual timers forever.
 
Prorate? Sounds like that affliate want's more dough. In a captialist market, it's fair for them to request this if they think it'll be negotiated, but it sucks for you the consumer impacted by their choice.

Hopefully this will resolve when they decide that some revenue from E* customers is better than none and the ill will generated by the process. The real battle is that they'll try to paint this off as an E* issue to try and direct the ill will there during the negotiation process.

I suspect, long term, they'll be back to your selections. It just may be some time before managment of both E* and that affiliate work out a deal. Hope in your case it's pretty soon and doesn't increase your rates.
 
If you dont get all the major networks then they usually just take off 1 dollar for each you dont. I think its limited to CBS, ABC, NBC, and FOX.
 
Sigh. I'm also in Sioux City. I noticed this and am quite upset. Oh well, even though I can still OTA, I'm not going to watch ABC anymore.
 
I am in Spirit Lake, Ia. I just transfered up here with my job (Born and raised in Sioux City), but I was so happy to get Sioux City locals via Dish up here in the Lakes region. NOW I don't get ABC at all. OTA is not an option from 70+ air miles away from the Digital signal.
The people of Sioux City don't care, because a majority of the TV's in SC are on Cableone or OTA.
Hell will have Hockey when this is resolved.
 
you should get a buck per month off. I remember when Dish lost the Viacom channels our (Mpls) local CBS (WCCO) was part of it and we got a buck off
 
Pardon me for being a tad off the subject, but since we're talking OTA locals, why doesn't our UNC(blah)TV PBS EVER have any shows "broken down" on the guide? All of the other channels through my OTA are "broken down" and display the program/times on the respective channels..? All it (PBS) ever says is "Digital Service". Granted, all I ever tune in for is some educational programming for the youngsters, but I get tired of having to go to their website and scroll through a week's worth of programming to find times/dates for 3 shows. :rolleyes:
 
This is the email I just sent to the 3 email address that are listed on KCAU's web site:

Thank you for the idea of asking for a rebate from Dish Network during this time of YOUR dispute with each other. I am saving $1.00 a month while this is going on.
Those of us in the rural areas are suffering because of it, but at least I know that I don't have to pay for it.
In the mean time, I am beginning to like the other "LOCAL" news I am getting from the other "LOCAL" stations that have reached an agreement with Dish Network.

Jeff XXXXXXX
2710 XXXX Ave.
Spirit Lake, Ia.
51360
 
KCAU now is posting on its website that it is not optimistic that they will be able to settle with Dish. Dish is still running the video loop on the Dish provided KCAU and is not providing any guide info for the over the air KCAU. Does anyone know if Dish provides guide data for over the air stations in markets where they have not been able to reach agreement with a major network? In this area Dish does provide over the air data for the subchannels not carried by Dish. However, Dish is making customers suffer by refusing to provide guide data because of the carriage dispute.
If I could still get guide data for over the air it wouldn't be so bad but it stinks the way it is.
 
KCAU now is posting on its website that it is not optimistic that they will be able to settle with Dish. Dish is still running the video loop on the Dish provided KCAU and is not providing any guide info for the over the air KCAU. Does anyone know if Dish provides guide data for over the air stations in markets where they have not been able to reach agreement with a major network? In this area Dish does provide over the air data for the subchannels not carried by Dish. However, Dish is making customers suffer by refusing to provide guide data because of the carriage dispute.
If I could still get guide data for over the air it wouldn't be so bad but it stinks the way it is.
Did anyone ever think about how we knew what was on TV before pay TV service?
The is something out there called a NEWSPAPER which has a listing of what is on TV. At least every newspaper that I have ever seen does.
 
You could also try the listings at tvguide.com or zap2it.com, they seem to be accurate most of the time. Manual timers suck, but they're better than no recording at all, yes?
 
You could also try the listings at tvguide.com or zap2it.com, they seem to be accurate most of the time. Manual timers suck, but they're better than no recording at all, yes?


I agree that manual timers are better than nothing, but it doesn't have to be this way. Why can't dish provide guide data for all over the air channels- even those they are fighting with? I can't imagine it's a legal reason since they provide guide data for all the subchannels and PBS they don't carry.
 
I agree that manual timers are better than nothing, but it doesn't have to be this way. Why can't dish provide guide data for all over the air channels- even those they are fighting with? I can't imagine it's a legal reason since they provide guide data for all the subchannels and PBS they don't carry.

A lot of my OTA subchannels say "Digital Service" and don't have any guide info, for instance myTV is a subchannel of our local CBS station and doesn't have info, neither do the subchannels of one of my PBS stations.

In fact, I don't even get guide info for one of my OTA ABC stations (WICD), only the ABC station that Dish carries gets info (WICS). So I think it's a lot more hit & miss than you might think.
 
I feel the pain as well ... since I have WHBF in Rock Island doing the same thing. Fortunately I get the channel OTA in HD but my second and third get nothing. Typical Dish ... pull channels because of Mr. Ergen. Then he has us believe he is doing it for us to keep rates down ... umm okay Charlie!
 
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In my opinion it is Citadel being greedy in this situation, Dish Network doesnt HAVE to carry this ABC affiliate or their sister stations. Why is it that every other station in Sioux City, or Des Moines, or Lincoln Nebraska are on Dish Network? perhaps they know that Dish Don't need them? Why is that Dish was able to "work out a deal" with just abou every other local station in the country (SD) but little Sioux City, Ia (DMA 144) thinks it's too good for Dish?
Don't get me wrong, I was born and raised in Sioux City, and would love to have my local ABC station in my home, but I think they are asking Dish to pay them too much money.
 
I have found nothing worth watching on my local channel 8 out of lincoln. I do not think I have watched anything on that channel in 4 years. I feel they have one of the worse programming than any other of the 6 local channels. But of course we will be paying a higher local programming rate because the ABC wants more money.
 
Well you hear different stories and I don't see Direct always having this problem. Talked with a friend that works at WHBF and he said they submitted the papers 6 months ago and never heard back from Dish until a few days before the shutoff. He basically put it on Ergen being a jerk. I am a customer and this should never ever happen and I don't care whose fault it is ... remedy the problem and never shut off service to a paying customer.
 
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