Dish and Tegna tonight say they have signed a new carriage agreement that will return Tegna’s 64 local network affiliates to Dish’s lineup.
The Tegna stations have been blacked out on Dish since October 6 when the old carriage pact expired.
“We are pleased to announce that we have reached a new agreement with DISH, restoring our valuable and important live local news, live local and national sports and highly popular network content to DISH TV subscribers,” said Lynn Beall, EVP and COO of media operations for Tegna. “We appreciate the patience of our viewers while we worked toward reaching an agreement.”
Click Amazon: See Today’s 1-Day-Only Deals!
“We are pleased to announce that DISH and TEGNA have reached a multi-year agreement and your local channel has been restored,” Dish said tonight on Twitter.
The two companies were fighting over how much Dish should pay to carry the Tegna stations. Terms of the new agreement were not disclosed.
During the four-month blackout, Dish and Tegna filed counter claims of ‘bad faith’ negotiating with the Federal Communications Commission. The agency never acted on the complaints, but tonight’s agreement presumably now makes that a moot point.
The Tegna stations are in several large markets such as Washington, D.C., San Diego, Denver, Phoenix, Tampa, New Orleans, Atlanta, Seattle, Houston, St. Louis as well as mid-size areas such as Austin, Texas, San Angelo, Texas, Macon, Georgia, and Jacksonville, Florida, among others. To see a complete list of the Tegna stations, click here.
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
@tvanswerman
Thank you for the update. I notice the Spokane station has changed it’s notice.
Got email from Dish about KING in Seattle coming back on.
Wonder what it was, the Olympics and/or the upcoming Super Bowl, that made them both blink?
Sad. A bunch of rich people fighting over money at the consumers expense. Both companies should be ashamed. Now the executives of both companies will be able to buy new cars, houses and yachts!
And tomorrow it will be another 6 month blackout. Sorry Dish, too many disruptions of channels I am willing to pay for. Bailed and completely glad I did.
Don’t blame Dish unless you’re happy to pay for whatever NBC first wanted. I have news for you, NBC and others do this with all the carriers. Stations like NBC are double dipping- advertising dollars and rebroadcast revenue and the FCC is doing nothing about it.
David is 100% correct. I have no issues with DISH negotiating tough – they are trying to retain as many viewers as possible, and constantly raising prices does not help.
Bought an over-the-air antenna when the ABC blackout started. Gained several more channels and rarely watch DISH anymore, thinking about ditching it all together.
Multi billion dollar companies and all that greed. We already watch 5 minutes of commercials every 10 minutes of programs. First cbs then nbc. What stations next Dish?