Thanks all for the quick reply. That's what I thought. I hadn't heard of a contract dispute. Plus when there is they usually say that they're trying to save us money.
It can be hard to tell. I have seen the slate that Scott posted in post number 2 be used on channels in dispute before, especially if they are close to a deal and only expect the channels to be down briefly. As I mentioned in another thread, I most recently saw that slate on the temporary "Netflix" satellite-delivered channel that Dish had on channel 302 in SD and HD at the start of the HBO dispute. In that case, the slate and the way the channel was labeled in the guide was confusing, since there never was a linear Netflix channel. It was being used as a "replacement" for one of the HBO channels. Then, Dish took those channels away, leaving only the Netflix app on 302, not the satellite-delivered 302 SD and HD channels that had been there.