Dish dispute with Sinclair...reached deal in principle

I would lose two stations, CW and MY in Birmingham. IMHO there is no great loss on the networks. The stations have no local news. The only thing of interest to most people is SEC football and it is not in HD. I receive the stations OTA to my 722k and 211k so that any shows that my wife might want to see I can record. I don't know if I would lose the program guide on OTA but a manual timer is easy to set.
 
I would lose my Fox station, so when the Steelers are home against the Eagles and Redskins, I won't get the games.
 
This is starting to really get old! I'm sitting here watching my local news and I get a scrolling message across the top of my screen saying that this channel (WTVC in Chattanooga) will no longer be available on Dish after August 16th. What is the deal with this company? I appreciate the fact that they fight to keep our rates low. But at some point something's got to give. I've learned to deal with the fact that I can't watch ESPNU in HD (along with Disney and Fueltv). And I wasn't happy losing AMC, but the fact I really only watched one show on that channel, the free Roku helped with that issue. But I cannot handle losing my local channels. Especially with the new tv season approaching. I wonder how many pennies this squabble is over? I really hope this gets worked out. I love my Hopper and the technology that Dish offers but I think I would have to change providers if there's no ABC. I wonder if Dish would provide an ABC from another market in its place?
Here is the official statement from Dish.....Of course the link is DISH Satellite TV Packages From $19.99 | Satellite Television Service | DISH
Sinclair Broadcast Group Calls for Massive Price Increase for DISH Customers
Local Programming Access for DISH Customers in 45 Markets Threatened
ENGLEWOOD, CO -- (Marketwire) -- 08/13/12 -- Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. has threatened to block DISH customers' access to television stations in 45 cities across the country unless DISH accepts a massive price increase. The retransmission consent agreement between DISH and Sinclair expires August 15 . If the companies fail to reach an agreement on price, DISH will no longer be allowed to carry Sinclair's signals.

"We carry more than 1,800 local broadcast stations nationwide. Sinclair is asking for more than any other station anywhere in the country," said Dave Shull , senior vice president of programming for DISH. "This goes beyond pure corporate greed -- it's profoundly insensitive to the needs of the public."
DISH has worked on retransmission contract negotiations with Sinclair for months, but Sinclair is insisting on a rate increase that would force DISH to pay more for those ABC , CBS, FOX and NBC channels than DISH pays to any other broadcaster. Sinclair also owns numerous stations such as CW and MyNetwork affiliates.
Higher costs will translate into higher fees for customers.
"We hope Sinclair will soon embrace a more reasonable attitude about price increases, so we can keep those channels on DISH," said Shull.
This year, broadcasting companies across the country have blacked out more than 50 channels on various pay-TV companies at various times. An industry watchdog group, American Television Alliance , recently called for U.S. Congress to "revamp the out of date rules" that favor those blackouts

another link.....press@dish.com
 
What I find interesting is this....If pay tv subs do not have access to local channels as they did not via satellite reception, those stations would get NOTHING..It would seem to me that each station owner would be grateful to get even one dollar per sub in their DMA.
Now it seems these large companies that own several stations some have multiple stations in one DMA( I think this should be illegal) are simply demanding these rates because they can.
Question is when this comes to a head, who blinks first.
 
I'm in the Chattanooga Market too, so looks I will lose my ABC here also.
 
What I find interesting is this....If pay tv subs do not have access to local channels as they did not via satellite reception, those stations would get NOTHING..It would seem to me that each station owner would be grateful to get even one dollar per sub in their DMA.
Now it seems these large companies that own several stations some have multiple stations in one DMA( I think this should be illegal) are simply demanding these rates because they can.
Question is when this comes to a head, who blinks first.

A $1 per sub for a local? I don't think so. We are talking pennies per sub. If Dish pays any station group a $1 per sub, then every group is gonna want that. Dish carries 11 stations here in Tulsa, there is no way I am paying $11 a month just for locals, especially when they are full of commercials, often interrupting programming for unnecessary weather alerts and offered free to anyone with an antenna.

The market duopolies I can see many Pro's and Con's to them.
 
I find it interesting that Sinclair notes their stations are available on Directv, FIOs and ATT. Well, that is until those contracts run out and then they will face the same highway robbery. You would think that Sinclair would realize that if Dish and other providers didn't carry their stations, they wouldn't have as many viewers. DTV changed reception ability. If Dish and some of these companies do not put their foot down, no one could afford satellite service. Greed at its very best.
 
I find it interesting that Sinclair notes their stations are available on Directv, FIOs and ATT. Well, that is until those contracts run out and then they will face the same highway robbery.
They have a "form" already done up and saved. It looks like this:

Information on (insert carrier name here) Negotiations
Attention (insert name here) Subscribers: Beginning (insert effective date), this station no longer expects to be carried by the (insert carrier name here). We apologize for this inconvenience and suggest (insert carrier name here) subscribers make alternative arrangements to ensure their continued ability to watch this station.
We will continue to be available from (insert other viewing options here), and over the air. It is only (insert carrier name here) subscribers who may no longer be able to watch this station on (insert carrier name here) after (insert effective date). For more information, please click here or contact (insert carrier name here) at (insert carrier's phone # here) to tell them you want this station. Thank you!
 
Can Dish get those local channels from another state until this dispute are resolved?

No

There are a few very rare instances where Dish has been able to import an affiliate signal from a neighboring market, but 99.9% of the time they can not offer another markets signals.

The only time Dish can import a neighboring station is when the market in question is missing that affiliate and the imported one is part of the retrans issue

So unless you are in a short market and are getting a neighboring affiliate already dont count on it
 
Yech, KEYE-TV (our Austin CBS) is running the crawl. I thought(!) that before Sinclair bought them, we had a longer term agreement. I guess not. Feh.
 
I see that my local stations are "updating" their Facebook pages every couple of hours with the same story .... just to make sure we don't miss it ;)
 
Ive been contemplating on "moving" to Tulsa from OKC for months now and i think this will be the kicker. KOKH and KOCB are god awful anyways. No HD news only morning and 9pm newscasts and just recently got equipment to play syndicated HD, I hear Tulsa Fox is a million times better. Thankfully Tulsa barely includes Stillwater on all their local weather warnings.
 
Lucky me that the sinclaire station here is one I haven't watched since Enterprise left the air AND it's transmission tower is clearly visible out my rear window so if I really wanted to watch Judge Judy I could use the OTA tuner on the 622. :)
 

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