Dish and Freedom Corp disagreement heats up

[wkomorow]

I assume this applies to other Freedom Corp stations -


Albany Channel 6's manager has been on air telling viewers that Dish and CBS6 have been in negotiation for the HD signal for a while, but Dish executives do not seem to want to cut a deal. As a result, CBS6 will be pulling their SD signal as well as the local CW soon unless Dish agrees to carry the HD signal.

June 13th may be very interesting if they pull their signal from Dish and many people with those special HD antennas (7+ UFH) do not realize that 6's digital signal is moving from channel 39 to a low VHF frequency (back to 6).

 

[Raymie]

Here we go! June brought to you by the letter F.

 

[flampher]

I saw that same thing on their hd off air broadcast this afternoon.

 

[wkomorow]

I wonder if Freedom's SD retrans is up, or if Freedom is trying to make a point with Dish over HD?

 

[Raymie]

Just sent now to Freedom GMs and other people in the company:

5 June 2009

Dear Mr. Costa, Mr. Bassett, Mr. Beaulieu, Mr. Lutton, Mr. Kelley, Mr. Furlong, Mr. Kennedy, and Mrs. Wade:

The clouds are clearly on the horizon for Dish Network customers. With missing HD signals and now threats of the SD signals going away too, the Freedom Communications television portfolio is at risk of losing an audience. These rate squabbles are bad for everyone; the station loses viewership and ultimately advertiser money, while Dish loses subscribers due to the fact that their markets can't get their CBS, ABC, and/or The CW. If Freedom's stations are pulled, this will mark two actively running retransmission consent disputes for Dish Network. The first, with Fisher Communications, has removed the signals of TV stations from Boise to Seattle, from Portland to Bakersfield. If KTVL Medford is pulled, it means that the entire state of Oregon will be affected by one of the two retransmission consent disputes. The television advertising market is as low as it ever has been...and do you want to lose advertisers and their precious revenue? Well, that might just happen given the way Dish is doing this. I'm Raymie Humbert, the 14-year-old Arizona-based editor of the EchoStar Knowledge Base News Monitor, a Dish Network news site.
I would like to see these stations somehow return to Dish Network. I would also like information on what Dish is offering and what you are countering back with if possible, as well as the date you are going to pull your channels if there is no compromise; I'd also like the ability to post this information to the public. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Raymie Humbert
EchoStar Knowledge Base

 

[wkomorow]

Just sent now to Freedom GMs and other people in the company:

5 June 2009

Dear Mr. Costa, Mr. Bassett, Mr. Beaulieu, Mr. Lutton, Mr. Kelley, Mr. Furlong, Mr. Kennedy, and Mrs. Wade:

The clouds are clearly on the horizon for Dish Network customers. With missing HD signals and now threats of the SD signals going away too, the Freedom Communications television portfolio is at risk of losing an audience. These rate squabbles are bad for everyone; the station loses viewership and ultimately advertiser money, while Dish loses subscribers due to the fact that their markets can't get their CBS, ABC, and/or The CW. If Freedom's stations are pulled, this will mark two actively running retransmission consent disputes for Dish Network. The first, with Fisher Communications, has removed the signals of TV stations from Boise to Seattle, from Portland to Bakersfield. If KTVL Medford is pulled, it means that the entire state of Oregon will be affected by one of the two retransmission consent disputes. The television advertising market is as low as it ever has been...and do you want to lose advertisers and their precious revenue? Well, that might just happen given the way Dish is doing this. I'm Raymie Humbert, the 14-year-old Arizona-based editor of the EchoStar Knowledge Base News Monitor, a Dish Network news site.
I would like to see these stations somehow return to Dish Network. I would also like information on what Dish is offering and what you are countering back with if possible, as well as the date you are going to pull your channels if there is no compromise; I'd also like the ability to post this information to the public. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Raymie Humbert
EchoStar Knowledge Base

Nicely worded, hope you get I reply, I have written several times and never got a response. I think you would also need permission from Dish to publish any contract negotiations. Given their current financial problems, I am very surprised Freedom did not accept what Dish was offering. In perspective, Dish has agreements with thousands of stations and problems with less than maybe 1/2 of 1 percent of them - but it is a pain when the 1/2 of 1 percent includes a station that you want.

 

[whatchel1]

.2

Just sent now to Freedom GMs and other people in the company:

5 June 2009

Dear Mr. Costa, Mr. Bassett, Mr. Beaulieu, Mr. Lutton, Mr. Kelley, Mr. Furlong, Mr. Kennedy, and Mrs. Wade:

The clouds are clearly on the horizon for Dish Network customers. With missing HD signals and now threats of the SD signals going away too, the Freedom Communications television portfolio is at risk of losing an audience. These rate squabbles are bad for everyone; the station loses viewership and ultimately advertiser money, while Dish loses subscribers due to the fact that their markets can't get their CBS, ABC, and/or The CW. If Freedom's stations are pulled, this will mark two actively running retransmission consent disputes for Dish Network. The first, with Fisher Communications, has removed the signals of TV stations from Boise to Seattle, from Portland to Bakersfield. If KTVL Medford is pulled, it means that the entire state of Oregon will be affected by one of the two retransmission consent disputes. The television advertising market is as low as it ever has been...and do you want to lose advertisers and their precious revenue? Well, that might just happen given the way Dish is doing this. I'm Raymie Humbert, the 14-year-old Arizona-based editor of the EchoStar Knowledge Base News Monitor, a Dish Network news site.
I would like to see these stations somehow return to Dish Network. I would also like information on what Dish is offering and what you are countering back with if possible, as well as the date you are going to pull your channels if there is no compromise; I'd also like the ability to post this information to the public. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Raymie Humbert
EchoStar Knowledge Base

It may be related to the .2 channel is a CW and that E* doesn't want to carry it now. Freedom may be pushing for that. Now if all the of F's stations are being pulled across the country then it has to do with contract negotiations for all the secondary channels to be carried and E* can't do that yet. Do you know if it is all the F stations or just the Albany station? The Albany station's .2 is a This TV net Which I don't believe that E* carries anywhere.

 

[Raymie]

It's the entire chain of stations.

 

[wkomorow]

It may be related to the .2 channel is a CW and that E* doesn't want to carry it now. Freedom may be pushing for that. Now if all the of F's stations are being pulled across the country then it has to do with contract negotiations for all the secondary channels to be carried and E* can't do that yet. Do you know if it is all the F stations or just the Albany station? The Albany station's .2 is a This TV net Which I don't believe that E* carries anywhere.

CW in Albany is on its own primary frequency channel - 45 and not a digital sub-station and is currently carried in SD on Dish. CBS6 does carry the this network on its .2, but this is not owned by Freedom.

 

[david_jr]

I find it interesting that Freedom thinks that Dish is being unreasonable. While WTEN (ABC), WNYT (NBC) and WXXA (Fox) all have agreements with Dish for HD carriage and WRGB (CBS) is the only holdout, they say that Dish is unreasonable. I think that most here would agree that it is Freedom that is being unreasonable. I have not seen the TV spot. Who is speaking and is there an email address to write to?

 

[wkomorow]

General manager of WRGB is speaking and they give Dish;s 800 or 888 number to call to tell Dish we do not want to lose cbs6

 

[Raymie]

Tell Dish? I tell Freedom, not Dish.

I work in the opposite way of station GMs, aiming comments at the broadcasters.

 

[Pen15head]

i would inform them i would rather call local govt reps and inform them to work on importation of another networks signal allowances instead.

 

[wkomorow]

i would inform them i would rather call local govt reps and inform them to work on importation of another networks signal allowances instead.

Tried that - Kennedy is otherwise occupied, Kerry never responded, and Olver sent back a note saying Dish breaks the rules so he will not support any legislation that will help them. He went on to put me on his email alerts list and now I get 10-15 emails a week detailing what a great job he is doing.

The legislation is actual ideal for those of us in the berkshires - we get all our major networks from NY and can not get MA based stations for news, etc.

I absolutely agree legislation that will allow neighboring DMA reception via satellite will put short shrift to these disagreements. I have been lobbying for it for years.

The point is that Freedom is losing money each day they postpone agreement. I am sure that they have long since past the break even point for the stubbornness. Better to get some income now than none or holding out for more money later.

 

[Pen15head]

all you can do is tell the reps they lost all your future votes. thats what i do. and to let them know i plan on informing as many people to not vote for them either.

 

[Pen15head]

great effort though on making those contacts!

 

[david_jr]

Tried that - Kennedy is otherwise occupied, Kerry never responded, and Olver sent back a note saying Dish breaks the rules so he will not support any legislation that will help them. He went on to put me on his email alerts list and now I get 10-15 emails a week detailing what a great job he is doing.

The legislation is actual ideal for those of us in the berkshires - we get all our major networks from NY and can not get MA based stations for news, etc.

I absolutely agree legislation that will allow neighboring DMA reception via satellite will put short shrift to these disagreements. I have been lobbying for it for years.

The point is that Freedom is losing money each day they postpone agreement. I am sure that they have long since past the break even point for the stubbornness. Better to get some income now than none or holding out for more money later.

I also contacted all of the above. I was told that it is not in Kennedy's purvue, no response from Kerry and Olver gave me the same song he gave you and also put me on his mailing list. Olver runs practically unopposed every year so there is little chance of unseating him. I would suggest an email or phone campaign against Freedom with their advertisers advising that they are witholding their advertising from their viewers. Wonder if that would have any effect?

 

[wkomorow]

I also contacted all of the above. I was told that it is not in Kennedy's purvue, no response from Kerry and Olver gave me the same song he gave you and also put me on his mailing list. Olver runs practically unopposed every year so there is little chance of unseating him. I would suggest an email or phone campaign against Freedom with their advertisers advising that they are witholding their advertising from their viewers. Wonder if that would have any effect?

I thought about the same thing However, in Albany advertisers seem to be mostly local businesses that probably could care less about a few less Dish customers in the Berkshires. In terms of the emails, Olver's staff must glance at them and initiate autoresponses based on a few key words in the message. At least this is happening in the summer, so mostly repeats and the best time for the disagreement. In addition, 6 will be moving to VHF and increasing power next week, so I should be able to reliably get them off air. (Can't now.)

 

[whatchel1]

Better check again

CW in Albany is on its own primary frequency channel - 45 and not a digital sub-station and is currently carried in SD on Dish. CBS6 does carry the this network on its .2, but this is not owned by Freedom.

The owner ship of the CW is owned by Freedom. I did look it up. It may have it's own analog freq now but is it going to be switched over from A to D on the conversion date or will it just stay up as .2 then? You can look that up on TV fool to see. I don't care that much since I'm not in your DMA.

 

[flampher]

It is actually digital now,(CW) and broadcasting 1080ihd on uhf carrier 43, analog 45.. I live in Vermont but cannot get the Burlington ota's but I am able to get the Albany stations most of the time.