Sinclair Playing Hardball With Dish?

[RS922]

Tonight during 7th Heaven, WVTV (analog) ran a crawl advising viewers that an agreement with Dish Network expires at the end of May 2005 and viewers to that service may lose the programming if no new agreement is reached.

Just wondering if anyone else saw the crawl and had any thoughts on the topic.  Except for 7th Heaven, I don't watch WVTV that often.

[Neilium]

I did catch it tonight when flipping channels on TWC, but I found this on the site. Seems to be all Sinclair stations. Seems similar to the CBS/Viacom Blackout with Dish  from a while back.


Neilium

http://www.sbgi.net/misc/dish.shtml

Status of Negotiations With the DISH Network

The contract pursuant to which  the signals of each of Sinclair's television stations are carried by the DISH satellite network is scheduled to expire on Tuesday, May 31, 2005.  Despite the good faith efforts of Sinclair to arrange for an extension of this agreement with Echostar Communications, the owner of the DISH Network, we have been unable to reach an agreement to do so.  Although we continue to negotiate with Echostar, there can be no assurance that these negotiations will be successful and if they are not, Sinclair stations will no longer be able to be viewed by DISH subscribers over their satellite service beginning on Wednesday, June 1, 2005.  We regret any inconvenience this may cause to our viewers, but please be aware that Sinclair stations continue to be available for free over-the-air, as well as on virtually all cable television systems located in our markets and on DISH Network's  primary competitor, DirecTV (with whom we were recently able to conclude negotiations for an extension of their retransmission consent agreement).  We will keep you informed of any change in the status of our negotiations with Echostar, but in the meantime encourage our viewers to make alternative arrangements to ensure their continued ability to watch our programming after May 31st.  Thank you.

[AndrewP]

No problem, it is available with simple OTA (even indoor) antenna.
Dish will not bow. Sinclair will lose here. However it is different from TWC/Sinclair dispute over HD broadcasts. TWC doesn't provide OTA tuner, so cable subscribers are really missing some HD content.

[gparris]

No problem, it is available with simple OTA (even indoor) antenna.
Dish will not bow. Sinclair will lose here. However it is different from TWC/Sinclair dispute over HD broadcasts. TWC doesn't provide OTA tuner, so cable subscribers are really missing some HD content.

Us cable subs rely on TWC for HD content including local HD stations, otherwise we wouldn't have cable.  TWC (now Dish for sat) don't understand the concept, obviously. :rolleyes:

Looks like only Directv is all set for every local HD channel when the sats are ready and the rest of them  (with the exception of Comcast Cable, who IS  working with Sinclair) are not doing their best for their subscribers.The WB network on analogue in TWC channel 18 is really awful.

[bradsmainsite]

It never ceases to amaze me how you never hear the other side of the story
like how much more SINclair is trying to charge dish for their  channels to
begin with.  Just because E* is the fastest growing sat service everyone
suddenly feels  like there being ripped off because their not getting a piece of the
pie!  However what they fail to realize is all those new customers are able to watch their channels with much better picture qualities! I wonder how much
less D* was charged fo these channels? :rolleyes:

Beware of the its all their fault tactics! :OnAir: