Media General Stations Removed from DISH, Agreement Reached
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Possible 90 day extension agreement reached?
It would seem that perhaps a 90 day agreement was reached per:
JOHNSON CITY — Johnson City-based CBS affiliate WJHL announced Friday afternoon that it reached an agreement with Dish Network to extend its current transmission agreement for 90 days while both parties continue to negotiate terms.
Both Dish Network and Richmond, Va.-based Media General, WJHL’s parent company, have been in a contract dispute that threatened to knock WJHL off the satellite provider’s network in the Tri-Cities if an agreement was not reached by 11:59 p.m. on June 30.
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What is odd though is my local WNCN doesnt seem to have anything about the extension agreement, but it would seem odd that Media General would extend one station but not another.
It would seem that perhaps a 90 day agreement was reached per:
JOHNSON CITY — Johnson City-based CBS affiliate WJHL announced Friday afternoon that it reached an agreement with Dish Network to extend its current transmission agreement for 90 days while both parties continue to negotiate terms.
Both Dish Network and Richmond, Va.-based Media General, WJHL’s parent company, have been in a contract dispute that threatened to knock WJHL off the satellite provider’s network in the Tri-Cities if an agreement was not reached by 11:59 p.m. on June 30.
Full text here
What is odd though is my local WNCN doesnt seem to have anything about the extension agreement, but it would seem odd that Media General would extend one station but not another.
That was back in June - they were also in negotiations then, but reached an agreement to allow Dish to carry the station for 90 more days while they continued negotiations.
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Wasn't MediaGeneral one of the last groups to spend the money to upgrade their stations to HD several years ago. They bellyached about the cost and were late to convert most of their stations. Real Cheapskates.
IIRC, the FCC requirement just made stations go to a digital transmission system. It did not require (again, IIRC) originating HD programming or even passing along network HD programming.
I agree, just set a statutory re-transmission rate for any and all OTA stations, and make that a part of the license to transmit OTA.
I believe Dish could probably put the guide data on the OTA channel.. They just choose not to.. It gives them another place to place a statement about how much the channel is asking for in fee increases.. But that is just my opinion
From what I understand the guide data is copyrighted to the stations, so no agreement means DISH / Tribune is not allowed to show DISH customers their guide data. 
Dish sucks. They could give away local antennas and what good would they be without guide data. So, now we have to manually program our recorder every day. I bet TiVo does not pay each station for guide data.
I lost WKRG 5 CBS in Mobile/Pensacola due to Media General Dispute. I have an OTA module on my Hopper. Oddly, I have guide data for the OTA subchannels (5-2 and 5-3) but no guide date for the primary OTA channel, 5-1. The primary OTA channel 5-1 is just a mirror of the "Important News- Press Info!" being shown on Sat channel 005-00. So I can only set manual timers and they have no program info in the resulting recordings. At least I can receive and record CBS but, because there is no program info, I can't easily determine which recording is which. The DVR info just gives channel and date/time.
I agree and suggested that a couple months back on here and was told "independent" stations shouldn't get as much money because they don't have as many viewers.
For me, personally this is a non issue.. I have DirecTV as a backup at my house. But for my Customers that have already started calling and threatening to shut off their service and switch, which will create charge backs, I say DISH please Don't take to long here at the start of the Fall TV Season and Football Season.. The loss of WKRG/CBS is going to be costly to me.
