TV Answer Man, I am counting on you to tell us if there is something new with the Dish fight with my local CBS station here in the Washington area. But I also want you to comment on who’s causing this?! Who’s at fault in this. Who can we blame for real? — Claire, Fairfax, Virginia.
Claire, as you know, Dish has been without 64 Tegna-owned local network affiliates since October 6 due to a disagreement on how much Dish should pay to carry them. The list includes your local CBS affiliate, WUSA-TV, in Washington, D.C.
Let’s tackle your first question first: Is there anything new?
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No. The two sides continue to do battle on social media sites, exchanging allegations over who’s to blame for the blackout. Dish and Tegna have also filed ‘bad faith’ complaints against each other with the Federal Communications Commission, but the agency has yet to act on either.
Now for question two: Who is to blame for this mess?
Since neither Dish or Tegna has released the specifics of their positions, it’s impossible to say if one company or both are being unreasonable. (Companies never publicize exact numbers in carriage disputes.)
Dish says Tegna is asking for an excessive carriage fee to increase the company’s value while it looks for a buyer.
Tegna says Dish uses programming blackouts as a device to force broadcasters to lower their fees.
There could be some truth to each statement. Tegna is now taking bids to sell the company while Dish has had more programming blackouts over the last few years than any other pay TV provider. But we don’t know if Tegna is using the Dish negotiation to try to drive up the company’s value, and we don’t know if Dish is purposely allowing this blackout to occur to cut costs.
So, Claire, I can’t answer question two. Both companies obviously share some responsibility for the blackout, but I can’t say one is more responsible than the other.
Hope that makes sense. Happy viewing, and stay safe!
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
Dish blames Tegna and Tegna blames Dish. The one thing they have in common is that neither one cares about the consumers. Just how much money they both make. The truth is no one cares about us the consumer, the ones who have to pay through the nose. No one wants to put a stop to all the cr**p they’re pulling on us.
I whole heartily agree with you about no one cares about the viewer. It’s sort of like a nasty divorce case dish and Tegna are both telling some truths and both are guilty of telling lies intentionally to sway the viewers to put the pressure on one or the other company. It’s time for the FCC to levy fines on both parties. And the federal labor department should impose binding negotiations and if they can’t settle after that the judge will impose a settlement that he or she feel is fair to both sides.
I agree. Its the consumer that suffers from this tantrum.
Is it your opinion that the dispute between Dish and Tegna may not be resolved therefore it best to look for an alternative provider or antenna? A change like this is difficult for elderly folks. Thank you for your input.
Daryl, my husband and I are in our 70’s. Not anxious to switch to something else because of learning something new. To change is hard for us elderly. But you know what, we’re getting so tired of Dish and Tegna both. Right now we’re trying to get an antenna hooked up so we can watch Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade.
We are considering an antenna as well. However, we are not sure an antenna will pick up a signal where we live. Trying to figure it out. Thank you for your response Anna Marie.
Total Greed. By both companies they don’t give 2shits about us the customers if I had a another choice dish would be gone in a heartbeat so sick of all the bull in this dispute
We bought the indoor/outdoor antenna when CBS was no longer viewable. It worked BUT when it scans for NBC doesn’t look like it available in Tacoma/ Seattle area. What
Gives? I’m so disgusted with these companies playing games at our expense. We pay for the dish monthly and it keeps going up and we’re getting less.
can we get a refund on the dropped station that Dish and Tega are fighting over
We pay $12 a month to receive our “local” stations through Dish. We live 75 miles from Corpus Christi and 150 miles from Houston, so I’m not real excited about receiving the Houston stations to begin with. The fact that you can (in theory) receive these stations with a local antenna should raise the question about why you should have to pay an arm and a leg to either side. I just want them to stop screwing around & give me back my CBS station (or preferably switch my local stations to Corpus Christi) and be done with it!