Most parts of the Upper Midwest have lost at least one network affiliate on DISH Network amid a dispute between the satellite provider and Gray Media.
Gray owns at least one major affiliate in every Upper Midwest market except Des Moines, Minneapolis, and Milwaukee. Two or more channels are affected in most of the markets.
The outage began on Tuesday, March 10, at 6 p.m. Central time. DISH Network issued a news release at that time saying that the outage affects 226 stations in 113 markets nationwide.
“Gray Media chose to disconnect these stations—which provide critical local news, sports, and weather—after DISH refused to accept unreasonable rate increases that would have raised monthly bills for consumers,” DISH said in the news release.
Gray responded with a news release March 11 calling DISH a “serial instigator” of outages, citing 16 retransmission consent disputes involving DISH since 2018.
“Gray’s track record for fair and reasonable distribution negotiations is undisputed in the industry. Gray has never had its signals dropped by a satellite operator, and its last multimarket cable system dispute lasted just a few days over a decade ago,” Gray said in its news release.
Gray said there had been extensions to prevent the outage from affecting the Super Bowl, Winter Olympics, and NBA All-Star Game.
A separate retransmission consent dispute is also affecting DirecTV customers in two Wisconsin markets, with Morgan Murphy Media’s CBS affiliates in Madison and La Crosse off DirecTV since 11 p.m. March 6. The separate disputes mean each satellite provider is missing one major network affiliate in each market.
Disclosure: Jon Ellis is an employee of Gray Media Group. The statements and views expressed in this posting are his own and do not reflect those of Gray Media Group.