FNC and FBN Go Dark on Dish…
Variety’s Brian Steinberg writes about FNC and FBN going off Dish Network’s lineup in a contract renewal negotiation dispute. (via J$)
Dish said in a statement early Sunday morning that 21st Century Fox had blocked access to the two networks after Dish balked when rates for other networks owned by the media conglomerate were made a part of the negotiations. Tim Carry, executive vice president of distribution at Fox News Channel, countered in a statement that “Dish prematurely ceased distribution of Fox News in an attempt to intimidate and sway our negotiations. It is unfortunate that the millions of Fox News viewers on Dish were used as pawns by their provider. Hopefully they will vote with their hard earned money and seek another one of our other valued distributors immediately.”
Dish said it had offered a short-term contract extension that would have kept Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network on the air as the two parties continued to haggle over terms.
“Fox blacked out two of its news channels, using them as leverage to triple rates on sports and entertainment channels that are not in this contract.” said Warren Schlichting, senior vice president of programming for Dish, in a company statement. “It’s like we’re about to close on a house and the realtor is trying to make us buy a new car as well,” he said separately in the company’s release.
Hmmm one side says the provider blocked access…the other says the company yanked its channels…who to believe?
Inside Cable News 
December 21, 2014 at 10:15 am
I could do a pretty good ad for DirecTV, right about now…
December 21, 2014 at 10:17 am
i love it!! in every situation like this they blame each other. but it’s usually the broadcasters fault because they are the ones demanding the fee increase…and it’s probably a big increase in this case. I am proud of dish for standing up to fox and pulling the plug. dish and fox need each other so they will work it out.
December 21, 2014 at 11:06 am
A carrier wanting to maintain whatever profit margin is possible vs. the content creator wanting to create as much profit as they think is warranted. Rock and hard place for figuring out the truth.
December 21, 2014 at 11:59 am
I think, with a few exceptions – like ESPN, the carriers have the upper hand in these battles. With more and more networks looking to split a relatively ever decreasing sized pie the distributers can pick and chose which networks they allow on their satellites. That’s why networks, like Fox, try and extort the carriers to pick up their less popular networks by blocking access to popular networks. It usually doesn’t work because, in most cases, it harms the service provider more than the distributer.
December 21, 2014 at 12:13 pm
..Missing your daily does of obama bashing because your currently satellite provider took those channels away..Wait no more!! come on over to direcTV and get revived. Switch right now and we will throw in fox noise channel along with 500 other channels you won’t watch for the low low low price of 120 a month!!! that’s right you can get all the obama bashing you want ..24/7 for 120 dollars a month!!! Throw the old dish away and get fox noise direct to your TV!!!