Dish avoids retrans dispute

[ncted]

In unusual news, Dish renews a contract early with no pulling of channels. I am sure this actually happens more regularly than we might know, but that doesn't make good news.

AT&T and Capital Broadcasting Company have been pissing a lot of people off lately since they pulled NBC and FOX from U-verse in my area. Looks like Dish is trying to take advantage:

"UPDATE: October 9, 2017

We want to share this from Jimmy Goodmon, President and Chief Operating Officer of Capitol Broadcasting Company:

"I want to assure our viewers we worked hard to get a deal done and extended our contract twice with U-verse. We are as frustrated as you to be in this situation. Unfortunately, what’s happening to us is happening to local stations all over the country. We’ll keep at it.”

Despite Capitol Broadcasting Company's continuing attempts to reach agreement with AT&T U-verse to carry WRAL and FOX 50 in Raleigh-Durham and WILM in Wilmington, we cannot report any progress. Unfortunately, we do not have any way to predict when our stations might return to the U-verse lineup. We encourage you to call AT&T U-verse and request a credit on your bill for every day you don't have our channels.

If you’re considering making a change, we want you to know that Capitol Broadcasting Company and DISH Network L.L.C. reached a multi-year deal for WRAL, FOX 50, and WILM-TV on that satellite system. The deal was completed months ahead of the contract expiration date. DISH is sending extra installers into the Raleigh market to assist with new installations.

“We are pleased to announce the renewal of our agreement with DISH. We worked out an agreement that is fair to both sides in less than 48 hours of negotiations, months in advance, for the benefit of our viewers and DISH subscribers. This shows what can happen when reasonable business partners share common interests and work together," Goodmon says. "We appreciate that DISH understands the value of our local channels for their customers, and we are pleased that DISH subscribers will be able to watch the award-winning news, weather, sports, and entertainment programming we provide for many years to come. While we’re happy to announce this extension of our partnership with DISH, we remain open and committed to coming to a fair market agreement with U-verse."

Last week, in partnership with Mohu, a local antenna manufacturer, we gave out more than 4000 over-the-air antennas to U-verse customers. If you were unable to participate at that time, Mohu is offering a discount to U-verse subscribers in our viewing area. Find the right antenna for your address here.

Please continue to check this page on WRAL.com for any updates.

We thank you for your patience and we promise to be back in touch with updates."

 

[DWS44]

So...in other words, they renewed early and easily with Dish to spite AT&T? Smart move by Dish to swoop in and take advantage, I suppose.

 

[ncted]

So...in other words, they renewed early and easily with Dish to spite AT&T? Smart move by Dish to swoop in and take advantage, I suppose.

Not sure what the real story is, but they make it seem like they'd rather their viewers use Dish. Hard to imagine Dish was really easier to deal with than AT&T, but I suspect AT&T is trying to keep their costs down given the impending purchase of TW, and the debt load they are carrying. They have also been pretty stingy with the renewal incentives for U-verse customers lately. I know several people who have switched to Spectrum or satellite or OTT rather than keep U-verse TV.

 

[KAB]

Direct snub to Directv! OTOH, I thought ATT was trying to fade out Uverse anyway.

 

[rad]

Watch the Dish contract ends in 2 weeks, they didn’t say when they renewed the contract

 

[ncted]

Direct snub to Directv! OTOH, I thought ATT was trying to fade out Uverse anyway.

I think they want to, but they are also rolling out Fiber to our area, and people are switching from Spectrum and want a similar experience. These are people who have so far chosen to stay with a crappy cable company over going with Satellite or OTT, so U-verse is the best option as they see it. AT&T tries to get them to go with DirecTV, but a lot of people hate having a dish on their property. I almost went with U-verse, but after having Dish and DirecTV for years, it seemed somewhat lacking in comparison, although the channel packages are great.

 

[EchostarFan]

Back when I had Dish, I remember back in August of '13 seeing WBTV (one of the locals in Charlotte) pulled from the lineup due to E*'s dispute with Raycom Media (based in Montgomery, Ala.) and I was very frustrated that there was no WBTV anymore, but it was temporarily replaced with WGN-TV (located in Chicago) until WBTV returned several days later on the 9th, after E* and Raycom reached an agreement. That dispute was crazy!

---- end of story ----

Anyways, Capitol Broadcasting did an early renewal with E*, no pulling. Sorry Ma Bell and D*, sometimes you have to suck it up, buttercup.