Dish Loses 28 CBS Stations In Fee Fight
Posted on November 21, 2017 by TV Answer Man in CBS, dish, Television // 4 Comments
Dish this morning lost 28 CBS-owned local stations in 18 markets due to a fee fight between the companies, both companies announced.
Update: CBS said Wednesday that the two sides are still far apart in their negotiations.
The blackout comes just two days before Thanksgiving when CBS will air its annual holiday football game between the Los Angeles Chargers and Dallas Cowboys. The network also will air SEC conference football this weekend as well as a NFL doubleheader on Sunday.
Click Amazon: Shop Now For Black Friday Deals!!
CBS owns 14 local CBS affiliates in such large markets as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Miami, Boston, Atlanta, Detroit, Baltimore, Denver, and Miami.
This dispute will not affect the other CBS affiliates which are owned by other companies and hold separate carriage deals with Dish. The other 14 CBS-owned local stations affected by this dispute consist of CW affiliates and independent stations.
You can see a complete list of the CBS-owned local stations here.
The Dish blackout also includes the CBS Sports Network, and the CBS owned Smithsonian Channel and Pop channel. However, it appears that the CBS-owned Showtime is not affected by the blackout.
Dish issued a statement this morning saying that CBS rejected its offer for a temporary carriage extension that would keep the stations on while negotiations continued. The network has not commented on that claim as of 4:43 a.m. ET today.
The companies are fighting over how much Dish should pay to carry the CBS-owned stations and channels.
"CBS is attempting to tax Dish customers on programming that's losing viewers, tax Dish customers on programming available for free over the air, and tax Dish customers for content available directly from CBS," Warren Schlichting, Dish's executive vice president of programming, said in a press release. "Our customers are clear: they don't want to pay a CBS tax. It's regrettable and unnecessary that CBS is bringing its greed into the homes of millions of families this Thanksgiving."
At its web site, KeepCBSOnDish.com, CBS responded by noting that Dish has been involved in numerous carriage disputes over the years, some of which have led to temporary channel blackouts.
"Since 2013, Dish has dropped the signals of 29 different companies, representing nearly 400 television stations, clearly indicating that these tactics are commonplace for them," CBS says at the site. "This particular dispute is yet another example of the company punishing its subscribers instead of negotiating a fair carriage deal that reflects the current marketplace."
Despite CBS saying Dish 'dropped' its channels, a pay TV provider can not carry a channel without its owner's permission. In this case, CBS pulled the signals this morning when Dish refused its terms for another carriage agreement.
Dish CBS
4 Comments on Dish Loses 28 CBS Stations In Fee Fight
Tom Stein // November 21, 2017 at 11:09 am // Reply
I have to side with CBS on this dispute. CBS is entitled to the money more than Dish is. Hey, Dish has to lose a dispute sooner or later. You know they can't win every time.
Patricia E Kelly // November 21, 2017 at 9:02 pm // Reply
I would like to watch my soaps and other shows on cbs I'm paying for those channels and I'm getting nothing… just not fair do something we're the ones paying the price
Mike // November 22, 2017 at 12:35 pm // Reply
Just WAIT till Trump get thru GUTTING the Internets New Neutrality.
Here's Dishes reply, if CBS would leave signals on, they will pay retroactively to what ever the new price settlement is – Who is CBS for, not their customers.
"DISH Offer of Extension, True Up Rejected
DISH and CBS had been making steady progress in their recent negotiations, and DISH was hopeful that they would come to a mutual agreement to renew carriage of its local stations. In that spirit, DISH offered a short-term contract extension to CBS that would include a retroactive true-up when new rates were agreed upon, and would preserve the ability of DISH customers to access the CBS stations while negotiations continued. The true-up would ensure that CBS was made whole at the new rates for the period of any contract extension.
"With DISH willing to grant an extension and a retroactive true-up on rates, CBS had nothing to lose and consumers had everything to gain by leaving its channels up," said Schlichting. "Instead, CBS chose to turn its back on its public interest obligations to serve viewers."
"We are actively working to negotiate an agreement that promptly returns this content to DISH's programming lineup," added Schlichting."