Nexstar-owned stations in nine Upper Midwest markets have been restored to DISH Network after what DISH had described as the largest-ever retransmission consent dispute.
DISH announced in a news release issued at 11:05 p.m. Central time on Christmas Eve that it had reached a new multi-year agreement with Nexstar. Terms were not disclosed.
The outage began at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 2 and ended late in the evening on Christmas Eve. The dispute has included 164 Nexstar stations in 115 of the nation’s 210 TV markets. Regionally, the dispute affected:
- Bismarck-Minot: KXMC/13(CBS), KMXA/2 (CW)
- Des Moines: WHO/13 (NBC)
- Green Bay: WFRV/5 (CBS)
- La Crosse-Eau Claire: WLAX/25 (FOX)
- Marquette: WJMN/3 (CBS)
- Quad Cities: WHBF/4 (CBS), KGCW/26 (CW)
- Rapid City: KCLO/15 (CBS)
- Sioux City: KCAU/9 (ABC)
- Sioux Falls: KELO/11 (CBS)
- WGN America
- SuperStation feeds of KTLA Los Angeles and KWGN Denver to grandfathered subscribers
As is the custom in such disputes, each side issued strongly-worded announcements accusing the other of wrongdoing. Nexstar said DISH was offering “less than fair market value” for the rights to carry its programming and accused DISH of having a “documented long-term practice of putting its paying subscribers in the middle.”
Meanwhile, DISH said Nexstar was “prioritizing greed above American viewers” and said Nexstar was asking for “outrageous rates” to pay for its recent station purchases. DISH said Nexstar is asking for more than $1 billion in fees but did not specify how that compares with other channels.
The Nexstar-DISH outage came a day after a Tegna-DirecTV outage that also affects Des Moines and the Quad Cities, meaning satellite customers in those cities couldn’t escape the disputes by switching to the other provider. The Tegna-DirecTV dispute has also been resolved.