bcshields said:I had cable locals for a while. I did notice that whenever my dish fuzzed out for rain fade, lo and behold, so did my cable channels.
Geronimo said:So the only one you got right is the one about Condoleeza Rice and Bush.
EchoStar, with 9 million subscribers nationwide, said its contract with Turner Broadcasting System expired Dec. 31. The companies agreed to an extension that has kept Turner programming on the DISH network, but EchoStar spokesman Steve Caulk on Monday refused to say when that extension expires.
“If and when the (extension) agreement expires, we would then have to drop the channels in question,” Caulk said. He said Turner was seeking “unreasonable rate increases.”
If EchoStar doesn't strike a new agreement with Turner, it could be forced to pull channels again.
"We haven't been offered a reasonable deal," Charlie Ergen, EchoStar's chairman and chief executive officer, said Monday night during his monthly "Charlie Chat" session with viewers. "We will never compromise on this. I can assure you we want to get a deal done."
Two popular Turner channels, TNT and TBS, would not be affected by a blackout because they are part of another contract. But a blackout would affect CNN, Headline News, Cartoon Network, Boomerang and Turner Classic Movies.
EchoStar and Turner officials would not say when the contract extension expires.
"We are in negotiations with EchoStar and remain hopeful that EchoStar will continue to make Turner's industry-leading networks available to its Dish Network customers," Turner spokeswoman Shirley Powell said.
But don't put it past EchoStar and Ergen to suffer through channel blackouts again in order to stand up to rapidly rising programming rates from Turner, Viacom and other companies.
"Ergen's obviously prepared to take a strong stand, and whether he ends up taking off the network is hard to say," said Thomas Eagan, an analyst with Oppenheimer & Co. in New York.
By playing hardball with Viacom and now with Turner, EchoStar is making a statement to programmers as a whole, analysts said. With 9.4 million subscribers, EchoStar is the nation's fourth-largest pay-TV provider and wants the clout associated with that position.
The outcome with Turner may indicate whether Ergen's strategy is working.
"Part of the purpose of going toe-to-toe with Viacom was to soften up other providers," said Bill Jacobs, who follows cable and satellite companies for Harris & Associates in Chicago. "Part of it was to show that Charlie is crazy like a fox."
For the entire article click hereAlthough Turner and EchoStar were not at the negotiation table Tuesday, according to sources, they are still on talking terms. Neither side will disclose the actual expiration date of the current extension, but sources say it runs for at least another two weeks, if not longer.
EchoStar Communications Corp. and Turner Broadcasting have until the end of the month to reach a new contract agreement, analysts said this week.
"We haven't really been offered a reasonable deal," EchoStar chief executive Charlie Ergen told Dish customers during a broadcast Monday night. "We certainly hope we can get a deal with Turner. They've been a partner to us for a long, long time."
For the entire article click hereIndustry observers say Turner, a division of New York-based Time Warner, is in a weaker position than New York-based Viacom, making it less likely to enter a showdown with EchoStar.
"It appears unlikely that Turner would force EchoStar to drop the channels given that EchoStar will continue to carry other channels that include virtually the same content and CNN ratings have struggled in the recent past," Jayant wrote in a note to clients Monday.
Since the liberal radio network is about to go belly up..your gonna be sol without cnnGaryPen said:Other than HBO, CNN and HNN are my most-watched channels.
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