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MOOSIC — Area Dish Network subscribers who want to watch the sixth game of the NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers on ABC affiliate WNEP-TV on Thursday may be out of luck.
Because of a lapse in contract negotiations between the network’s parent company and the carrier, the channel was blacked out on Sunday night for Dish customers.
The blackout affects not only WNEP, but 42 local channels in 34 states and Washington, D.C., for stations owned by Tribune Broadcasting, the Network said in a news release.
Dish Network and WNEP’s parent company, Tribune Broadcasting, are placing the blame squarely on each other.
According to Gary Weitman, spokesman for Tribune Broadcasting, “Dish is notorious for blacking out broadcasters and cable networks rather than agree to market rates, so we want to make sure that Dish subscribers who rely on us for news, traffic, weather and live sports are aware that they may lose it all, along with losing access to WGN America.”
Weitman said the interruption occurred “because Dish refuses to recognize the fair value of our first-in-class news, sports, and entertainment programming.”
Dish, however, points the finger at Tribune for demanding “forced bundling” of a low-performing network with all of the local TV stations.
According to Weitman, since the beginning of 2013, when the current management team began running Tribune Broadcasting, the organization has reached agreements with all other cable and satellite providers without any disruption in service in any of their markets.
“In the past three years alone, Dish has forced 12 television station groups and cable networks off its distribution system,” he said in an email.
Weitman describes the response from its Wilkes-Barre/Scranton market as “tremendous.”
Any negotiations with Dish, Weitman said, would be done through Tribune Broadcasting, which owns or operates 42 stations across the country.
In response Dish is offering “over the air” antennas at no cost to customers in affected markets, so they can watch Tribune’s local broadcast channel for free.
Originally Dish was offering overnight shipping of the antennas, but has now said it would be shipping the devices by mail, which might take two or three days, according to a customer.
“Tribune is demanding an unreasonable rate increase for channels that are available for free over the air,” said Warren Schlichting, DISH executive vice president of Programming. “Actions like Tribune’s are what drive price increases and feed customer frustration for our industry. With DISH’s free antenna, customers will continue to receive Tribune channels for free over the air, along with dozens of other broadcast channels not normally available to pay-TV customers.”
Schlichting said, “In addition to asking for significant price increases for local channels, Tribune is attempting to ‘force bundle’ an unrelated and low-performing cable channel, WGN America, with the media conglomerate’s local broadcast stations.”
Each year, the cost to carry local broadcast stations rises far beyond the rate of inflation, leading to blackouts across the country that affect millions of subscribers of various pay-TV companies, according to a DISH press release.
According to SNL Kagan, a leading source on the media industry, broadcast fees burdening pay-TV consumers were as low as $215 million in 2006, soared to $4.9 billion in 2014 and are expected to more than double to reach $10.3 billion in 2021.