Dish today lost 14 local network affiliates owned by Apollo Global Management in a carriage dispute between the two companies.
The nation’s second largest satellite TV service said in a statement that it offered to continue the previous agreement with higher rates to keep the channels on while negotiations continued. But Dish said Apollo rejected that offer.
“We don’t understand why Apollo is choosing to put customers in the middle of its negotiations, especially during a global pandemic when customers need access to local news and programming,” said Andy LeCuyer, Dish’s senior vice president of programming. “We have offered to apply our current agreement — with higher rates — to keep their channels available and avoid any service interruption while we continue to negotiate, but they refused, demanding a 40-percent increase to rates agreed to last year. We want to come to a long-term agreement that is fair for our customers.”
However, the Apollo stations today posted a notice on their web sites saying Dish is refusing a “fair deal” to carry them.
“(The local station) has been removed from the service of DISH Network after the satellite provider refused to agree to a fair deal for a new retransmission consent agreement with Cox Media Group (the name for the subsidiary that runs the stations for Apollo),” the web notice reads. “If you are currently affected by DISH’s decision to deprive you of important local news and programming during these critical times, make your voice heard! Call DISH today at 1-800-333-3474 and demand that they get your local programming back.”
The friction between the two companies has a recent backstory. Dish and Apollo are engaged in a lawsuit over whether Dish’s previous carriage agreement for the 14 stations was prematurely ended when Apollo bought them from Cox Enterprises last year.
The satcaster obtained a restraining order preventing Apollo from ending the past agreement, but a federal court recently halted the restraining order. That action triggered today’s blackout.
The 14 Apollo stations, which are based in 10 different markets, are:
WSB-TV, Channel 2 (ABC, Atlanta, GA)
WFXT-TV, Channel 25 (FOX, Boston, MA)
WSOC-TV, Channel 9 (ABC, Charlotte, NC)
WAXN-TV, Channel 64 (IND, Charlotte, NC)
WHIO-TV, Channel 7 (CBS, Dayton, OH)
WFOX-TV, Channel 30 (FOX, Jacksonville, FL)
WFOX2-TV, Channel 32 (MNT, Jacksonville, FL)
WHBQ-TV, Channel 13 (FOX, Memphis, TN)
WFTV-TV, Channel 9 (ABC, Orlando, FL)
WRDQ-TV, Channel 27 (IND, Orlando, FL)
WPXI-TV, Channel 11 (NBC, Pittsburgh, PA)
KIRO-TV, Channel 7 (CBS, Seattle, WA)
KOKI-TV, Channel 23 (FOX, Tulsa, OK)
KMYT-TV, Channel 41 (MNT, Tulsa, OK)
Have a question about new TV technologies? Send it to The TV Answer Man at swann@tvpredictions.com. Please include your first name and hometown in your message.
— Phillip Swann
@swanniontv
How can we contact Apollo to complain to them?
Shame on you Apollo. I agree that you are vindictive to DISH and greedy beyound belief. I am done with your stations on any media. There is a plethera of other tv out there. You.should be ashamed of yourselves. With all your adcertising fees you still want to stick it to DISH customers. I’m done with you.
I agree Apollo sucks. I love watching wsbtv and they took it off my cable TV. When can we have our wsbtv news back? Because this is ridiculous! I’ve been stuck watching fox 5 news the past few weeks and it really does suck. So please Apollo let us get our regular schedule programming back!! Like for God’s sake.
I realize you and dish are haggling over prices and I also know that its just business to u but fox23 and my 41 are my favorite channels im disabled and I have to watch television as a way to distract me from my pain. Ive wrote similar words to dish for everyday since they were taken it off. Please consider working things out with dish bc sadly there’s more than just me waiting.
Thank you for your time.
Christi Flynn Cantrell
Apollo has shown stunning greed and callous disregard for average viewers. I am \lcked into a commercial satellite group and have no alternative to accesing WPXI. Hockey playoffs, Saturday Night Live, Judge Judy, Days of our lives, to name a few, all gone due to corporatwe greed. Shame on you, Apollo
Apollo said its COX not them?? Will Ch 7 return to Dish or are we to find
a new network?? AGree Ch 5 is not good
This dispute is ridiculous and has gone on way too long! We want our stations back, and friends that run commercials in this area are livid you aren’t broadcasting theirs. It is costing them money and advertising… ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!!
The best solution is for advertisers to leave WSB (Atlanta) and other markets. Only income loss will change their mind. Unfortunately they are raking in $$$ in political ads to keep them fat at this time.
Are you getting any closer to making a deal with dish network? Please we need abc back.
Cox Media Group is located in Atlanta (Dunwoody), Georgia. Look up Kim Guthrie, CEO.
As earlier reported by Inside Radio, Apollo Global Management is paying $500 million for 63 radio stations across 11 markets, including Atlanta, Miami, Houston, Tampa, Jacksonville, San Antonio, Tulsa, and Nassau-Suffolk, NY. The deal also includes Cox’s national TV rep firm CoxReps and Cox’s Washington, D.C. news bureau operations.
Apollo previously struck a $3.1 billion deal to buy Cox’s television station group, including the radio-TV-newspaper combination in Dayton, OH.
GREED, Apollo, GREED! The reason previous customers drop satellite TV services are the unpredictability of channels due to ownership issues, unstable weather interferences, and quality of channels vs. streaming & prices for other options such as Apple TV, Netflix, Hulu, etc… step it up, offer more attractive deals, or more customers will drop satellite services.
This is ridiculous, Apollo is being incredibly greedy. The CBS network in our area has 4 or 5 minute commercials throughout their programs. They have one informational segment then 4 or 5 minutes of commercials or add in the local news break and weather report twice an hour. I recorded CBS This Morning a few months ago and played back the entire 2 hour program in an hour by skipping commercials and the local news/weather breaks. Aren’t they making enough from advertising? Regular programs are maybe 18 minutes of program in a 30 minute slot or 38 to 40 minutes in a 60 minute slot. The morning program is especially irritating. That must be pretty valuable. I’m going to pass on this network until they get their priorities straight. There is plenty of other programming to fill the void and I can pick up anything else I want on All Access, HULU or some other option.
Agree. Well stated!
Atlanta, Ga viewer of WSB Channel 2, ABC. This flat sucks. And we lost both channel 2 and WGCL CBS channel 46 last year..2 in one year. 46 was gone 2 plus months.
Whoever this Apollo is, they are even more greedy than Dish.
We depend on channel 2 for traffic at 5:00 am, as theirs is the best.
THE BIG PEOPLE KEEP GETTING BIGGER AND US LITTLE PEOPLE KEEP GETTING TOOK.
When we had Direct TV for 12 years, I don’t recall this happening. AGAIN, DISH AND APOLLO, THIS OUT AND OUT SUCKS. GET REAL.
Go to Locast.org. You can stream 36 Atlanta stations for as little as $5.00 per month. Includes all of the major networks, PBS, Ion and lots of retro stations.
Sadly a lot of areas that have to use satellite TV are also the ones affected by a lack of high speed internet, so streaming isn’t an option.
Dish Customers are getting a runaround from both parties. First Dish sends their standard say nothing about any negotiations and the number on my screen for WSB “station manager” is garbage. I get a “news” person and then she acts like she knows nothing except Dish gave customers a wrong number. WSB says it is Dish who stopped transmission because a court order prevented them from stopping; that restraining order is no longer in effect. So is it Dish or Apollo. It’s lame to say it’s not Apollo, but Cox Media Group. Nice try! Apollo OWNS Cox Media Group. I could go OTA, but that does not work for me. Dish we happily sell you a converter that will put OTA on your TV FOR A PRICE! Yet they gave customers the same device FOR FREE when CBS was shut down. Now I have to pay extra for a service I am paying monthly for. No one answers at DISH (chat is off?). After almost 20 years with Dish I am getting ready to shut down.
Look at these guys portfolio… they are rich beyond belief! https://www.apollo.com/our-business/private-equity
Dish is going to lose customers
So basically Apollo is charging an outrageous fee for channels that are technically free. All of this using customers as pawns to get their way is beyond disgusting and is forcing me to dump my current carrier and not use any satellite or cable carrier. For Apollo to do this now is seriously low. Mr. Swann, your article stated where to reach out to DISH, but DISH customers already have that number. Besides, this time I don’t blame DISH for this current situation. Do you happen to have the contact number for Apollo as well as their social media information? I need that information and that was not in the article. Thanks!
I’m sick if dish network I pay 160 dollars per month and every other day it’s something I give up customer over 15 years it’s TERRIBLE…….
Shame on Apollo. Like one viewer already stated, They are rich beyond belief. Theses stations are free over the air stations. Apollo is trying to stick it to DISH. Can’t believe Apollo’s web site. It isn’t DISH that is refusing the offer, it’s Apollo. Apollo is the one that started the whole issue when they took controlling interest of COX Media Television stations. Why does Apollo need 40% more that the already negotiated fees DISH had with COX Media? That just sounds like GREED!
This whole thing is crap…. Bring back channel 2 to Atlanta … if not we’ll all have to find another source for TV!! There’s to much good stuff on channel 2… and i’m not missing it… Either stuff needs to change real soon, or we all will be finding a different way to watch tv instead of putting up with this crap!!!!! I have 7 TV’s…. I don’t pay a arm and a leg for the dish , just to have the channels leave…. and me miss my favorite shows… HELL NO!!!
It a shame we loose our local channels because of money mabye ask the customer what they want I would pay a little more to have my abc channels back. But it’s not fair you take away channels but we don’t get a discount or able to opt out of your service with out being charged a fee but you can take away channels and not give us any refunds all greedy people not looking out for your customers at all shame on you
CBS channel 5 Nashville TN
CBS # 7 = Seattle. I agree with the majority. APOLLO is at fault. I am standing by DISH who is trying to not have to raise my already high cable bill. There are LOTS of other channels to watch and we are in the Summer of re-runs anyway. The new Fall shows will be behind schedule because Hollywood was not able to produce them, when CA had the “stay home” orders that meant the actors too.
If I have to loose a “local” station that should be priced reasonably than so be it. I have 2 other local stations I can watch. Like another person said there are to many free options or less expensive (All Access, HULU for example) YEA DISH!! Let APOLLO/ COX Media find out they have out priced them selves in the broadcast arena. They are no longer needed. GREED any time is wrong but during a pandemic well all I can say is KARMA. It will at some point suck to be connected/ condoning APOLLO/ COX Media’s actions
Both are lying. But until the sales department lose income because their customers leave, then we suffer. Also thanks to that 75% of the adds are political right now, and they are flush with cash, nothing may change until November. Buckle up; but remember and prepare for the next onslaught – pay-for-view streaming. ESPN has already begun.
I have lost my NBC channel. Plus I live in a heavily wooded area and they can’t get me a decent signal. I constantly have to trim trees. And then in the winter have to run out and get the snow off the Dish. I feel that they are getting antiquated as a provider. I am heading to Comcast. Dish also lost the movie channels due to streaming and yet my bill is still huge. They need to give us a discount since we do not have some of our channels that were promised as we signed on. I’m sure it would be small but if everyone asked. I see many are blaming Apollo which I know nothing about. I just know that I can have high speed internet, cable with On Demand with box updates just done and at just a small charge (not like the Hopper) per month and phone for less than my Dish bill on 2 TVs.
It’s clear that money is so important that all the customers lose. Negotiations are fine. Don’t punish the viewers.
Sick & tired of the service with DISH and the high price for getting old, paid advertising channels and other such trash. When do we get a credit on our monthly bill for all the things we are NOT getting but are paying for?? We are seriously thinking of going to other means of getting TV programs. This is ridiculous and customers should not have to be punished because you and the companies you deal with argue and we, the customers, pay nearly for DISH and all that we are not getting as promised. Poor business on the part of DISH.
I loved watching wsbtv on ABC. Shame on you Apollo! Please let us get our regular schedule programming back!! Y’all gonna a lot of customers. Smh this is ridiculous!!!
Go to Locast.org. You can stream 36 Atlanta stations for as little as $5.00 per month. Includes all of the major networks, PBS, Ion and lots of retro stations. I use it in Northeast Georgia since the stations are a little far for over-the-air reception. Locast is a nonprofit that re-broadcasts local stations in several major markets in the US. The chairman of Locast is a former DISH vice president. DISH has recommended Locast during previous blackouts in other markets.
Unfortunately I have lousy WiFi So streaming services suck.
Apollo & Cox Media, YOU are being incredibly greedy! A 40% increase in one year is ridiculous! You say to complain to DISH. YOU are the ones who are stopping our programing. DISH offered to continue the previous agreement with higher rates to keep the channels on while negotiations continue. YOU turned them down. Don’t tell us to blame DISH! YOU, Apollo and Cox Media, ARE the JERKS!! Really sweet of you to be so greedy when many of us are stuck at home watching TV during this pandemic!
I think Apollo is based in India and own many hospitals. They are worth BILLIONS!! The worst of the greedy.
I’m a satellite retailer there’s so many channels to watch most customers don’t mind loosing a local channel. If they do I just put them up a antenna so they get it for free. Then they cancel the locals from dishnetwork and save 12 dollars.
I relocated to Atlanta in 1992. I have been watching Channel 2 primarily since then. However I have not been able to watch Channel 2 for weeks now.
I moved away from cable in 2006 and have been pleased with the service from Dish network. Channel 2 — or Apollo (whatever that is) – decided to cut off my access via Dish and it has gone on long enough! Are you listening “Apollo”?
I have known for years that WSB was part of Cox communications and I have no idea what “Apollo” is but it seems like they are exceptionally greedy as they try to raise prices during this pandemic!!!
The moral of this story is: though the WSB disruption has taken away my favorite ABC shows and WSB news, I have found other outlets for the shows and other local sources for news. Is the revenue from the many, many commercials that run on WSB not making ends meet for Apollo??? WSB has been getting its share of campaign ads this year so that has to be a boost but obviously Apollo has to bleed us viewers for ‘carriage fees’ … I no longer care!
Channel 2 has lost a longtime viewer and Im sure Apollo doesn’t care either.
This situation is ridiculous and has been going on to long.Two large companies such as yourselves, should have been able to reach an agreement. If this continues, you will probably loose more customer because people want what thy pay for. I would like a response where one company isn’t blaming the other and that this can be settled.
When is this going to end? Been over three months now. I miss WSB Channel 2. Settle up this dispute or give us credit.
Come on guys put ABC back or reduce our bill.
As it turns out, We customers of “Dish”, who was recently purchased by “Apollo” 1. Could possibley overstating their own rub as it relates to traditionalonal “Connect Fees” and involving its subscribers as ploy of intervention of “using” current Dish customers, instead of going Toe to Toe and trying to work out and negotiate reasonable agreement, in a Battle of Business to Business situation. Thus it appears; Dish wants us customers to be outraged, using us as a batering ram during in this business to business negotiations.
Come on Appolo, put your “Pants On” Don’t be tattling to mommy, In what appears to be a Business to Business fodder. As it turns out… using your customers as “Battlering Rams” in a traditional business to business transaction is not acceptable.
I signed up for DISH in early November not knowing they had lost the rights to air the local channels… and I wasn’t told. In fact DISH was was, and still is) showing them as available in their advertisement. I found out 10 minutes after the installer left and called them immediately. It did no good. All I can do is put my contract on hold for 9 months and hope that they get the channels back. In the meantime I had to unhook everything and re-install the cable companies equipment. I am NOT happy. I wanted DISH… and still do, but I would have waited had I was told about the local channels. If after 9 months passes and the problem is not settled I will go to court and have my contract cancelled as they refused to when I asked. How do you sell something you don’t have the rights to??? I am not impressed with DISH in the least