# Negotiations/Dispute Megathread: 2020 DISH Edition



## techguy88 (Mar 19, 2015)

*Last Updated*: January 19, 2020 9:15 PM EST

Since Dish Network has multiple disputes currently might be a good idea to have a thread listing the disputes with links to relevant discussions. This will also include *Dish Network*'s sister service *Sling TV* when applicable.

This should come in handy and make searching for discussions a whole lot easier in relation to disputes.

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2020 Active Disputes/Blackouts
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*Apollo Global Management - Former Northwest stations (Locals)*
Blackout Start Date: 1/18/2020
Blackout End Date: 3/16/2020
Stations affected: See list
Services affected: *Dish Network*
Reason: Price, Apollo wants to void the March 2019 agreement for the Cox stations and place them into a singular contract with both Northwest and Cox stations.
Current Status: *On-air*; Blackout temporarily ended due to COVID-19 Pandemic see post #15
Existing Discussion: Start with post #3 of this thread

*Apollo Global Management - Former Cox stations (Locals)*
Warnings of potential blackout: 1/10/2020
Stations affected: See list

Services affected: *Dish Network*
Reason: Price, Apollo wants to void the March 2019 agreement for the Cox stations and place them into a singular contract with both Northwest and Cox stations.
Current Status: *On-air*; The court granted Dish a temporary restraining order to prevent Apollo from blacking out stations due to Dish reaching an agreement with independent Cox Media Group back in March 2019.
Existing Discussion: Start with post #3 of this thread

*Nextar Media Group (LMA/SSA Sidecars) (Locals)*
Station owners: Mission Broadcasting, Marshall Broadcasting Group, White Knight Broadcasting
Blackout Start Date: 1/3/2020
Stations affected: See here
Services affected: *Dish Network*
Reason: Price, negotiation breakdown
Current Status: *On-air*; Blackout temporarily ended due to COVID-19 pandemic 
Existing Discussion: Here

*NFL Network / NFL RedZone*
Blackout Start Date: June 18, 2020
Services affected: *Dish Network, Sling TV*
Reason: Price 
Current Status: *Blackout ongoing*

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Active Carryover Disputes/Blackouts
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*Sunbeam Television (Locals)*
Blackout Start Date: September 12, 2019
Stations affected: WHDH-TV 7 & WLVI-TV 56 (Boston), WSVN-TV 7 (Miami - Fort Lauderdale)
Services affected: *Dish Network*
Reason: Price, negotiation breakdown
Current Status: Blackout ongoing

*NBC Sports Chicago (RSN)*
Blackout Start Date: October 1, 2019
Services affected: *Dish Network, Sling TV*
Reason: Price, "unreasonable demands"
Current Status: *Blackout ongoing*

Existing Discussion: Here

*Altitude Sports (RSN)*
Blackout Start Date: August 29, 2019
Services affected: *Dish Network*
Other affected providers: Comcast Xfinity (August 31, 2019 - Ongoing)
Reason: Price, Dish wants to move Altitude to a sports tier or a la carte service and Altitude rejects this
Current Status: *Blackout ongoing*

Existing Discussion: Here

*Fox Sports Networks (RSN Group)*
Blackout Start Date: July 29, 2019
Services affected: *Dish Network, Sling TV*
Reason: Price, Dish stating Sinclair has "unreasonable demands"
Current Status: *Blackout ongoing*
Existing Discussion: Here

*HBO/Cinemax (Premiums)*
Blackout Start Date: November 1, 2018
Services affected: *Dish Network, Sling TV*
Reason: Pricing, Dish states AT&T wanted a "minimal subscriber quota"
Current Status: *Channels space dropped, blackout ongoing*
Existing Discussion: #1, #2
Alternate ways to watch: See discussion


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## techguy88 (Mar 19, 2015)

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2020 Resolved Disputes/Restorations
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Nothing to see here yet!
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2020 Programming Expirations (drops not affected by disputes)
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Fusion (Channel 244) was removed on January 8, 2020 and replaced with the following message: "DISH continuously evaluates its programming in order to provide the best content to its customers. This channel is no longer available on DISH."
Starting in 2020 TheBlaze was removed as the channel stopped traditional linear pay-TV carriage to focus on its digital efforts like its SVOD service.


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## zippyfrog (Jul 14, 2010)

According to dishpromise.com, Apollo Global Management pulled their channels at 5pm mountain time, 1/18/2020. I have not seen an uplink report yet that verifies that though.


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## mwdxer (Oct 30, 2013)

Unfortunately, here we go again. None of those owners have a station where I live, but it could be anyone at any time. Sometimes, I think we should go back to E/W Networks...


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## techguy88 (Mar 19, 2015)

zippyfrog said:


> According to dishpromise.com, Apollo Global Management pulled their channels at 5pm mountain time, 1/18/2020. I have not seen an uplink report yet that verifies that though.





mwdxer said:


> Unfortunately, here we go again. None of those owners have a station where I live, but it could be anyone at any time. Sometimes, I think we should go back to E/W Networks...


After looking at several station websites the current situation seems to be that the former Northwest stations that Apollo owns are blacked out as of today. The stations Apollo acquired from Cox Media Group are currently on air. DISHPromise said it was granted a temporary restraining order against Apollo for blacking out the former Cox stations. The former independent Cox Media Group previously reached a multi-year agreement with Dish in March 2019. My guess is Apollo is trying to bundle the two groups into 1 singular contract.

Apollo-owned former Northwest stations (Blacked out since 6:00 PM January 18, 2020) (Archive link)
KLAX-TV, Channel 31, (ABC, Alexandria, La.)
WICZ-TV, Channel 40 (FOX, Binghamton, N.Y.)
WBPN, Channel 8 (MNT, Binghamton, N.Y.)
KIEM-TV, Channel 3 (NBC, Eureka, Calif.)
KVIQ-TV, Channel 17 (CBS, Eureka, Calif.)
WABG-TV, Channel 6 (ABC, Greenwood-Greenville, Miss.)
WABGD-TV, Channel 10 (FOX, Greenwood-Greenville, Miss.)
WNBD-TV, Channel 33 (NBC, Greenwood-Greenville, Miss.)
WXVT-TV, Channel 15 (CBS, Greenwood-Greenville, Miss.)
KPVI-TV, Channel 6 (NBC, Idaho Falls-Pocatello, Idaho)
KMVU-TV, Channel 26 (FOX, Medford-Klamath Falls, Ore.)
KFBI-TV, Channel 48 (MNT, Medford-Klamath Falls, Ore.)
KAYU-TV, Channel 28 (FOX, Spokane, Wash.)
WSYT-TV, Channel 68 (FOX, Syracuse, N.Y.)
WNYS-TV, Channel 43 (MNT, Syracuse, N.Y.)
KCYU-TV, Channel 41 (FOX, Yakima-Pasco-Richland-Kennewick, Wash.)
KSWT-TV, Channel 13 (CBS, Yuma AZ - El Centro, Calif.)
KYMA-TV, Channel 11 (NBC, Yuma AZ - El Centro, Calif.)

Apollo-owned former Cox Media Group stations (Warning of a potential blackout, still on DISH) (Archive link)
WSB-TV, Channel 2 (ABC, Atlanta, Ga.)
WFXT-TV, Channel 25 (FOX, Boston, Mass.)
WAXN-TV, Channel 64 (IND, Charlotte, N.C.)
WSOC-TV, Channel 9 (ABC, Charlotte, N.C.)
WHIO-TV, Channel 7 (CBS, Dayton, Ohio)
WFOX-TV, Channel 30 (FOX, Jacksonville, Fla.)
WFOX2-TV, Channel 32 (MNT, Jacksonville, Fla.)
WHBQ-TV, Channel 62 (FOX, Memphis, Tenn.)
WFTV-TV, Channel 9 (ABC, Orlando, Fla.)
WRDQ-TV, Channel 27 (IND, Orlando, Fla.)
WPXI-TV, Channel 11 (NBC, Pittsburgh, Pa.)
KIRO-TV, Channel 7 (CBS, Seattle, Wash.)
KMYT-TV, Channel 41 (MNT, Tulsa, Okla.)
KOKI-TV, Channel 23 (FOX, Tulsa, Okla.)

Edit: Uplink report posted at 11:22PM showing the former Northwest stations being removed.

EDIT: First post updated with Apollo dispute.


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## techguy88 (Mar 19, 2015)

Ah had I read _both_ notices about Apollo I wouldn't have had to guess Dish pretty much confirmed that is what Apollo is trying to do:



> DISH was granted a temporary restraining order to prevent Apollo from blacking out 14 more local channels, owned by Cox Media Group. Apollo was trying to cram the Cox stations into a new contract for Northwest, despite the fact that DISH has an existing multi year agreement to carry the Cox stations. Apollo's attempt to rip up an existing multi year contract with DISH, that was signed just last spring, is like a bank taking over a mortgage and then increasing the homeowner's monthly payment. Apollo also intentionally delayed negotiations to create increased deal leverage.


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## mwdxer (Oct 30, 2013)

That is the same song & dance for all OTA these days that Dish carries. I liked the old days when the OTA stations were not paid.


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## techguy88 (Mar 19, 2015)

mwdxer said:


> That is the same song & dance for all OTA these days that Dish carries. I liked the old days when the OTA stations were not paid.


I wish we could go back to those days as well. However I don't blame Dish for this one Apollo caused this.


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## zippyfrog (Jul 14, 2010)

techguy88 said:


> Ah had I read _both_ notices about Apollo I wouldn't have had to guess Dish pretty much confirmed that is what Apollo is trying to do:


Apollo cuts DISH customer access to local stations in 10 markets; Court bars Apollo from additional threatened blackouts - Jan 18, 2020

On the official Dish Network press release, they have a PDF copy of the restraining order. Very interesting read. And the fact that Apollo was trying to negate the deal signed last year for the remaining stations.


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## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

Apollo should have known that wouldn't work - when they bought the COX STATIONS, THEY ALSO BOUGHT (AND ARE BOUND BY) the carriage contracts that came with them.


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## techguy88 (Mar 19, 2015)

zippyfrog said:


> Apollo cuts DISH customer access to local stations in 10 markets; Court bars Apollo from additional threatened blackouts - Jan 18, 2020
> 
> On the official Dish Network press release, they have a PDF copy of the restraining order. Very interesting read. And the fact that Apollo was trying to negate the deal signed last year for the remaining stations.


That was a very interesting read indeed. Also one of the rare examples of a retransmission dispute where we get more info than intended. I hope Dish doesn't go 8 months without the Northwest stations like D* did.



scooper said:


> Apollo should have known that wouldn't work - when they bought the COX STATIONS, THEY ALSO BOUGHT (AND ARE BOUND BY) the carriage contracts that came with them.


Apollo must have missed that bit of the carriage contract. Even their FAQ on the Cox stations have a BS response:



> *Why is this happening again - Didn't WSB-TV just make a deal with DISH last year?*
> 
> Retransmission consent agreements vary in length, and the amount we can disclose about the circumstances of our relationship with DISH is limited by our contract with them. What we can say is that in the past, WSB-TV has always managed to complete negotiations with DISH without any disruption of service. We hope the same will be true this time, but we feel it is our responsibility to warn you about any potential loss of service.


I'm normally very critical of Sinclair however Apollo has managed to do something that no other station owner has done... make Sinclair look good. Sinclair was at least smart enough to recognize AT&T previously signed a long term agreement for the Fox Sports RSNs with old Fox. Sinclair didn't threaten to remove the Fox RSNs from AT&T while they negotiated a new retransmission agreement for their O&O locals and Tennis Channel (that they did threaten to remove) which would eventually included the Fox RSNs + Marquee into that agreement.

If this goes on for too much longer I could see Dish become the next MVPD to file a good faith complaint with the FCC and actually succeed like AT&T did to the group of Sinclair sidecars for D* and U-Verse TV.


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## icr2002 (Feb 26, 2005)

Any word on ch 56 boston???


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## techguy88 (Mar 19, 2015)

icr2002 said:


> Any word on ch 56 boston???


Ummm i didn't know about this before but after research no new updates Dish is still in a dispute with Sunbeam the owner of your CW station


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## techguy88 (Mar 19, 2015)

FYI: Added Sunbeam Television dispute on first post under "Active Carryover Disputes/Blackouts" section since this started on 9/12/19


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## techguy88 (Mar 19, 2015)

*Negotiations Alert: Cox-Dish Temporary call truce during COVID-19* - Stations restored in the following markets

Source

Binghamton, NY
Syracuse, NY
Medford, OR
Spokane, WA
Yakima-Tri Cities, WA
Yuma, AZ
Alexandria, LA
Eureka, CA
Greenville-Greenwood, MS
Idaho Falls-Pocatello, ID


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## techguy88 (Mar 19, 2015)

Updated top post with NFL Network/NFL RedZone Dispute (Source)

No new announcements have been made in regards to the disputed RSNs (NBC Sports Chicago, Fox Sports RSN Group and Altitude) but their entries on DISH Promise has been removed.

Could this thread be stickied / pinned so the disputes are easier to keep track of?


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## patmurphey (Dec 21, 2006)

Why a "megathread"? disputes need to fade into oblivion when settled.


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## Willh (Jan 1, 2009)

to catch up with who's feuding with dish over fees for channel retransmission carriage. 

Sent from my SM-A205U using Tapatalk


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## techguy88 (Mar 19, 2015)

patmurphey said:


> Why a "megathread"? disputes need to fade into oblivion when settled.


Disputes do fade into oblivion when settled however these are not settled disputes these are active disputes. Local stations that are on Dish Network either by restraining order or a global pandemic are not "settled" disputes. Only when there is a press release with the words "multi-year agreement" is it settled.

There is a similar thread for AT&T/DirecTV however they haven't had a major dispute or a locals dispute (that I'm aware of) since January 2020. D*'s only unresolved dispute is with beIN Sports that has been ongoing since 2018. That is unusual since Dish was the one able to reach a deal with beIN at the time without issue.


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## patmurphey (Dec 21, 2006)

This thread will become a cumbersome monster, with posts hard to find or irrelevant. So be it.


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## NYDutch (Dec 28, 2013)

patmurphey said:


> This thread will become a cumbersome monster, with posts hard to find or irrelevant. So be it.


If you take notice, the lead post is updated with current dispute status info and settled disputes are removed. 21 posts since January 4th doesn't look like a "cumbersome monster" to me...


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

While I appreciate the effort, we don't need a megathread. Disputes come and go ... it is hard to describe any dispute that will or has last three months or more as "active". The disagreements with Sinclair and AT&T|HBO are resolved (result: no carriage). We have and can have individual threads (by station group or channel provider group) for anyone interested in a specific "dispute".


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## techguy88 (Mar 19, 2015)

James Long said:


> While I appreciate the effort, we don't need a megathread. Disputes come and go ... it is hard to describe any dispute that will or has last three months or more as "active". The disagreements with Sinclair and AT&T|HBO are resolved (result: no carriage). We have and can have individual threads (by station group or channel provider group) for anyone interested in a specific "dispute".


It's not that hard at all to be honest. Dish may not consider them active disputes after 3+ months but I think Sinclair, WarnerMedia, NBC Sports Regional Networks, Altitude, etc. would beg to differ. (In the case of Sinclair and WarnerMedia these disputes will most likely come back from the dead when their other group of channels come up for renewal.)

I didn't create this thread to stop others from posting individual threads it was merely an overview of why x channel is no longer on Dish. It is more cumbersome to do a search for one particular channel or group as it pulls a whole bunch of topics. Some of these don't even have their own topics on the Dish side as opposed to DirecTV which has a thread for almost every single dispute.

However I can take a hint and know when to stop doing something that others do not like so you don't have to worry about me doing this or any other kind of thread like this again. If you feel the need to lock this thread please lock this one for AT&T/DirecTV I created at the same time. Peace!


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Nothing wrong with this thread other than the past few posts that have been discussing the thread instead of the actual topic. Updates and discussion of the channels is welcome.


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## Michael P (Oct 27, 2004)

Is there any chance of getting the RSN's back for the abbreviated baseball season?


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## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

My guess would be "not impossible, but not probable either".


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