Dish today signed a new carriage agreement with the National Football League, ending a nearly three-month blackout of the NFL Network and Red Zone Channel from the satcaster, and its live streaming service, Sling TV.
Sling’s Twitter customer service team was first with an announcement that the dispute had been settled. The tweet was posted at 1:06 p.m. ET, just a few minutes after the first Sunday of games for the 2020 NFL season began.
Hello, football season 😍
NFL Network and NFL RedZone are back on SLING!
Watch now: https://t.co/Dswx5BNyLh pic.twitter.com/Txw4E1iFIP— sling (@Sling) September 13, 2020
Dish later updated its DishPromise.com page to note the new deal.
“We are pleased to announce that DISH and the NFL have reached a multi-year agreement and your NFL Network and NFL RedZone channels have been restored,” the satcaster said at the site.
Sling TV and Dish lost both the NFL Network and the NFL RedZone Channel in June when they could not reach a new agreement with the NFL. The battle was over how much they should pay the league to carry the two channels.
Dish and Sling did not reveal new contract terms today in its tweet.
Many Dish and Sling subscribers were skeptical a deal would be reached before the 2020 season began; they noted that Dish’s management frequently triggers long-term channel blackouts by playing hardball in negotiations. Dish and Sling are now involved in several different carriage disputes, including ones with HBO, Sinclair, Apollo Global and Mission Broadcasting.
But Dish and Sling maintained they were hopeful a new agreement would be reached before today’s games began.
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Still waiting on the RSNs…🤔
Sling and Dish’s unprofessional manner of negotiating – dragging the customers into it with blackouts – is a big fat NOPE for me. Went to Youtube TV when NFL network was dropped by Sling and YTV picked it up. Far better picture quality, unlimited dvr, a bit more $ but considering once you add dvr+, sports extra and both Sling orange and blue (to get YTV’s NFL Network, ESPN, and redzone) you’re about the same and YTV has more channels.