DISH Says Sinclair Threatening To Pull Channels From Service

ROH fans who are also DISH customers may need to find an alternate venue to watch for a while, as Sinclair stations may be removed over a carriage dispute. DISH issued a press release on Monday noting that Sinclair is threatening to pull their channels from the service nationwide as leverage to negotiate a new fee increase.

Sinclair Broadcast Group has said that an agreement with Dish is unlikely to be reached before the current one expires on August 16th and if that is the case, then their stations will be removed. That would include channels that broadcast ROH, which is owned by Sinclair.

“We have tried unsuccessfully to reach fair and customary terms with DISH Network for the renegotiation of our retransmission consent,” stated David Gibber, Sinclair’s General Counsel. “Given the status of these negotiations, we feel it is important to alert DISH Network subscribers to the real risk that some of their favorite stations will no longer be available through DISH Network including their access to live, local news, popular syndicated programming, sports programming including college and NFL football, and the network programming of our ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and CW affiliates in those markets. DISH subscribers are also at risk of losing Tennis Channel. With this loss, tennis fans will not be able to see wall-to-wall coverage of the Western & Southern Open from Cincinnati, OH in the run-up to the last Grand Slam of the year, the US Open.”

Meanwhile, DISH TV Group President Brian Neylon said, “Sinclair is demanding DISH pay nearly a billion dollars in fees for their television channels — a massive increase from what we pay for these same channels today despite declining viewership. Sinclair is making these outrageous demands, turning its back on its public interest obligation and putting customers in the middle of its negotiations.”

Neylon added, “Sinclair is threatening to remove its channels from DISH customers if its unreasonable demands are not met. This negotiating tactic is used to upset our customers and intimidate us into accepting outrageous contract terms — a tactic the channel owner uses frequently. There is still time to reach an agreement with Sinclair that is fair for all parties involved, especially our customers. We will continue to fight on behalf of DISH customers to keep TV bills as low as possible. Despite the fact that Sinclair has walked away from the table multiple times, we stand ready to negotiate in good faith.”

The news comes just a couple weeks after 17 Sinclair Group-affiliated stations were fined a total of $9 million for not negotiating retransmission consent agreement with AT&T in good faith.