Looks Like Lin is back!

OK, so our CBS affiliate is gone from Dish for now. We can watch it OTA and record "old school." If push comes to shove, an OTA module for the 722K will let us back into DVR land (manual timers work just fine, thank you very much). This whole debacle makes me long for the days when we got the New York networks from Dish. The NY news was much more interesting and professionally done, plus they had a lot fewer technical issues than our Fort Wayne station does. Last week was worse than usual. I should have counted how many screw ups they had last week sticking in their "Dish is evil" messages that caused them to return to the network shows late. Yeah, some some subscribers will jump ship (bye, bye), but I think as consumers we must take a stand sometime against both rinky-dink locals and monopolies like Disney demanding exorbitant fee increases that invariably get passed on to us.
 
Will be making the call to DirecTV tomorrow or Monday. Sorry Dish, regardless of whether this is your fault or not (I know LIN plays hardball, they did it with TWC too), you no longer offer the channel that carries our favorite shows, nor the channel that carries our favorite hockey team. Had your service for awhile now, but it's no longer worth it (especially seeing as how DirecTV is the exact same price per month)!

By by now.....See ya....
 
According to the on screen graphics it says as follows when I tune to a LIN owned station...

LIN has blocked the signal for your local station. DISH Network offered multiple times to continue negotiating. LIN refused to even answer our phone calls. Now, they are asking for a 175% price increase.

We will continue to attempt to reach a fair deal with LIN.

For more information, visit www.FairSatellite.com
 
My note to the guys at LIN:

If it is true that you're only asking for pennies a day, then that means that you're asking for more than $.02/subscriber/day. I only pay Dish $5 for my local channels. In Indianapolis, Dish carries 11 local channels in SD and 7 in HD. Being generous, let's just say that the HD channels are free. So, my $5/month for locals is $.16/day for locals or $0.0152/day/channel. If all TV stations asked for "pennies" (i.e. more than one) per day, then Dish would lose money.

Since WISH is being broadcast over public airways and is supported by advertising dollars and covers none of the expense that Dish has in the transmission of the WISH signal back to Cheyenne, WY, to be transmitted up to the sat and back to my house, I am struck by the audaciousness of local broadcasters in asking for ANY money, when the benefit of Dish, Direct or Comcast carriage is INCREASED advertising dollars to you and your station.

If WISH is struck from the Dish line up, I will go to your website, find out any and all advertisers and complain to them directly about LIN's and WISH's channel removal and suggesting that they contact your station for a refund on their advertising dollars for lost viewership.
 
Here's LIN Media's side of the story from their website:Attention DISH Network Subscribers | LIN Media
"
LIN Media and DISH Network were unable to reach an agreement prior to the expiration of our current retransmission contract at Midnight (MST) on March 4, 2011.
Please know that we tried hard to reach an agreement with DISH and we are disappointed in the outcome of our negotiations, especially since we have successfully reached deals with every major cable, satellite and telecommunications company that recognizes our fair market value. Without fair and equitable treatment, local TV stations will not be able to continue to provide top quality news, sports, entertainment, and other local programming that is most important to you.
We will continue to negotiate with DISH. Unfortunately, we do not know if, or when, we will reach an agreement.
We thank you for your tremendous support throughout this dispute. We have received thousands of emails and phone call from viewers and advertisers who understand our position and are willing to stand by our side.
We hope you will continue supporting local television and watch us through alternative means. If you have any questions, please call 1-877-431-5578. We also encourage you to continue calling DISH and tell them you want your local TV station and all of your favorite programming back. You can reach DISH by calling 1-800-333-DISH.
Thank you for supporting LOCAL television."
 
This was sent to retailers by DISH Network

Effective March 4, 2011 LIN has blocked the signal of their owned local stations. DISH Network offered multiple times to continue negotiating and even tried to offer an extension, but LIN refused to even answer our phone calls.

This is not about pennies; this is about millions of dollars. LIN has demanded an outrageous rate increase of over 175% for the continued carriage of their owned stations. This increase is so immense that DISH Network and our customers couldn’t possibly absorb it. It is like demanding an overnight increase to almost $9 a gallon for gas, which is unacceptable. We’ve come to reasonable terms with more than 1,000 other local TV stations in the past few years, so why is LIN Media demanding such an enormous rate hike?

We encourage you and your customers to contact the owner of this station directly to voice your concerns about its demands for unreasonable contract terms, an excessive rate increase and the blocking of their local channels.

DISH Network is trying to negotiate the programming contract to bring these channels back as quickly as possible. We apologize that LIN is putting you and your customers in the middle of our negotiations by blocking these channels. Please rest assured that we are also doing everything we can to resolve this dispute.
 
As others have mentioned, guide data for OTA is gone... but only for the -1 channel, not the -2. Nonetheless, I went through our timers AND HAD TO DO ... NOTHING! No timers for the affected stations.
 
As others have mentioned, guide data for OTA is gone... but only for the -1 channel, not the -2. Nonetheless, I went through our timers AND HAD TO DO ... NOTHING! No timers for the affected stations.

Wife had one timer.. American Idol.. No great loss to me.. But because I want to keep her, I set the timer up on the DirecTV System so she can see that.. Might as well use the DirecTV for something. It usually never gets turned on..
 
I agree with dish on the Retrans Fees, but blocking the EPG info for the OTA tuners is a PITA. I just sent the following to president at dishnetwork.com:
Gentlepeople,
I am VERY disappointed in the fact that while this dispute with LIN is
going on, you have made my OTA tuner for KXAN USELESS for my DVR by also
pulling the EPG information (which is ALSO in the PSIP stream, that you
ALWAYS block).
I can't believe that your RETRANS contract expiration PREVENTS you from
giving EPG information for the OTA tuners.

I agree with DISH on the Retrans fee dispute, but PLEASE restore the
EPG information for the OTA tuners.

I am a LONG time (11+ year) customer and LOVE your equipment, but this is
one area that REALLY annoys me.

Thanks for any consideration!

Larry Rosenman
(with other personal contact info)
 
I feel for you Dish Subs and the constant pulling of channels from the service. There comes a time when great equipment is just not worth the hassle of chasing channels that you really want to see.
 
I feel for you Dish Subs and the constant pulling of channels from the service. There comes a time when great equipment is just not worth the hassle of chasing channels that you really want to see.

I feel sorry for you DirectTV subs. DirectTV usually just rolls over and pays whatever the provider asks, passing the increase on to YOU... Could that be the reason why we have about 30 more channels in HD than you do, and these are channels that I actually watch.
 

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