Q. I lost my Fox station on Dish because the owner and Dish can’t get their act together and sign a new deal. Or something like that. Do you know when this silly argument will end? Will it be just a few days? When will get my Fox station back? — Clara, Little Rock.
Clara, Dish last Friday night lost around 20 Mission Broadcasting-owned local stations in 18 markets due to a fee fight between the companies. The cities affected include Little Rock (Fox), Amarillo (Fox), Lubbock (ABC) and Abilene, Texas (NBC), among others.
Mission claims that it offered Dish an extension in their old pact, but that the satcaster rejected it and pulled its signals. Dish, of course, disputes that by saying Mission pulled the stations after Dish refused to pay what it regards as an excessive carriage fee.
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It’s usually impossible to determine what the truth is in these carriage disputes, and this one is no different. But what is clear is that the companies seem to be far apart.
In fact, I fear that this blackout could last for months rather than days.
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Why?
Dish has a history of playing hardball in these negotiations, particularly with a smaller broadcaster like Mission whose audience is relatively small. The satcaster simply doesn’t believe many subscribers will drop their service because of the blackout. And whatever revenue is lost due to defecting customers, it will be made up by not paying carriage fees to Mission during the dispute.
So, Clara, I wish I could be more hopeful. But I think you might need to invest in a TV antenna if you stay with Dish.
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— Phillip Swann
why would you need an antenna if you have Dish , would you be able to get the fox sports channels like fox sportsouth
This is about local channels.
Had I known Dish was going to discontinue a local station, kolr 10, I would not have renewed for another 2 years. Dish and Mission Broadcasting need to get on the same page.
yea! i about to cancel and got to comcast
This is MIssion – why would Dish advertise other ways of getting their signal? By doing that, they risk losing customers… Mission needs to stop being greedy…
Need to get fox channel back missing a lot of good shows or will cancel my contract with dish
Tired of all the BS. Both need to stop acting like 2 yr olds. Live out where even an antenna doesn’t pick up all the locals. People doesn’t do any good to drop one and go to another, same thing will happen with the other company also eventually. Y’all please come to some type of agreement. You’re hurting your customers not each other.
I lost KTVE, NBC, a local channel. Have no idea what carriage tax is or care. Just want my channels back. Still paying for & don’t have. Stop acting like greedy children or politicians we listen to lies from. Think about your customers for once. Ya’ll charge an arm & 2 legs now. Greed won’t buy you a way to HEAVEN but satan has a spot for you!
You are both on my list ! Quit being greedy and childish and work it out ! I cannot watch and record the Daytona 500 !!! I go to church Sundays and when I get home watch the completion later.Yes I can watch in my RV but am unable to record.
I am sick and tired of Dish and Mission not coming to an agreement. We pay Dish too much now for the channels we have cause you have to have a package and don’t watch three fourths of them. I have called Dish about this cause my husband and I both had special shows we watched. I have been with Dish forever but this is getting old and my husband is ready to change. This is so stupid they do this to all of us and KOLR is one of our local channels. I am about ready to take their DISH and shove it. There is always another company and they sure don’t respect their long time customers!!!
What is driving this black out is pure greed. Both companies have no regard for its customers, sad to say. This black out is moving to three months now, and no movement. Who is to blame, both parties, you have totally removed the customers in all of this, we are the folks that pay your bill. Sure, I am sure not getting paid from mission broadcasting doesn’t hurt your bottom line, so why do you care? Dish is still making money! Missions customers don’t matter to you, again Sad! Perhaps you could switch up the negotiation team, start fresh, and actually talk, face to face and get something done. Do you even know what the word negotiate means? give and take, compromise, greed seems to be the problem. I have spoken with both company representatives, you have given them talking points, it’s the same old stuff, one company blames the other, and we the people are the losers. Dish has been in the same situation in the past with broadcasting companies. We have had to wait weeks, and sometimes months for you to settle. Again greed is the common denominator!!! When it ends, if ever, we the people will be the losers , because any rate increase will be passed right onto the customers back.
I am not at all impressed with the dish network, you all should be ashamed of you performance, or lack of it!
We have been with this company for 13 years now, and I ask myself the question? Why!!
This needs to end, and end now!!
Hopefully this note will not end on deaf ears!
I AM A DISABLED ARMY VETERAN LIVING ON A RIDGE IN ARKANSAS WHO GREW UP IN K.C. WATCHING THE CHIEFS WITH MY DAD…LAST YEAR THE PISSING CONTEST BETWEEN DISH AND CBS COST ME SEEING TWO OF THE GREATEST PLAYOFF GAMES IN HISTORY…NOW THEY ARE AT IT AGAIN AS A NEW SEASON STARTS…….if I miss one more Chiefs game I will call my 56 first cousins and 5 times that in bikers, fire up my bike and go to all their headquarters and start a protest that will make those “trained Marxists” running BLM look like pikers….Why hasn’t the great ESPN even mentioned that a very large segment of the Champs most devoted and long-time fans were locked out last year and look to be again…(FYI: no one gains respect by disrespecting…ALL lives matter, including the unborn, but no one who has taken the oath to defend the Constitution can EVER honestly support a socialist/communist movement.
This has been going on for almost a year!!! This is something between to ‘companies’ but yet the people who pay monthly to receive these services are the ones who are missing out on ‘paid goods’… And I have made phone calls to BOTH the television station & Dish & they blame each other. IF it seems no one knows who is at fault then turn the channel back on!!!! We have missed ENOUGH this year with everything that is going on can we at least enjoy our local channel & our regular shows???? Enough is enough already….
Since Fox is a free signal to anyone who lives close enough to the station to get on an antenna, I can’t see how there is a fee problem. Fox 16 from Little Rock is the network station for my area, so I think Fox 16 should provide me a signal I can receive on an antenna. It looks like to me that Dish is providing to me something that Fox should be providing. Charging Dish anything by Fox is just broke. If we had a congress who wanted to help the people in this country instead of just fighting with each other in order to fill their pockets, this would have ended the last time this type of dispute came up
You answer to just buy an antenna for locals if you subscribe to Dish might me a cute answer to the problem for your antenna manufacturer sponsors, but an antenna will not receive any of the local channels in my area from the stations in Little Rock