Minneapolis NBC affiliate KARE 11 and other Tegna stations returned to DISH Network Friday, Feb. 4, after a nearly four-month retransmission consent dispute.
The outage had begun Oct. 6 and also included ABC affiliates WOI/5 (Ames-Des Moines) and WQAD/8 (Moline-Quad Cities), as well as CW affiliate KCWI/23 (Ames-Des Moines) and Denver NBC affiliate KUSA/9, which serves much of western Nebraska.
Terms of retransmission consent agreements and motivations for their resolution are never publicly disclosed.
However, DISH Network issued a news release on Friday afternoon noting that service was being restored in time for the Winter Olympics and Super Bowl LVI, both of which are airing on NBC. Tegna owns nine NBC affiliates in the top 25 markets.
In total, 64 stations were affected, almost all of them big-four network affiliates. A TVNewsCheck ranking last year listed Tegna as the third-largest broadcaster in the country, reaching 39% of TV households.
Both sides issued news releases thanking customers and viewers for their patience.
“We’re pleased to have reached an agreement in time for the Winter Olympics and Super Bowl that benefits all parties, especially our customers,” said Brian Neylon, DISH TV group president.
“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, Tegna’s EVP and COO of media operations.
RELATED: Previous coverage of retransmission consent disputes
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