Tegna stations are no longer being carried by a second major provider after the retransmission contract between the broadcaster and DISH Network ended at 8 p.m. Central time on Oct. 6.
The affected stations include Minneapolis NBC affiliate KARE/11, Des Moines ABC affiliate WOI/5, Des Moines CW affiliate KCWI/23, and Quad Cities ABC affiliate WQAD/8. A total of 53 markets nationwide are affected; Tegna is one of the largest owners of major-market network affiliates not owned by the networks themselves.
DISH issued a news release saying Tegna is “demanding a massive fee increase to nearly a billion dollars” and attempting to link the dispute to Tegna’s recent acknowledgement that it’s received offers to buy the company.
Tegna’s website does not specify exactly what the dispute is about but says it is “committed to reaching a fair, market-based agreement with DISH based on the competitive terms we’ve used to reach deals with numerous other providers that reflect the current market.”
Tegna stations have also been off Mediacom since Jan. 1 due to a separate dispute.
Ironically, Tegna’s websites about the Mediacom dispute still encourage people to consider switching to DISH Network.
Tegna was also off DirecTV for 20 days last December, meaning there’s been no way for customers in some cities to escape dispute outages except by using a good old antenna.
Federal law gives broadcast TV stations the right to choose between “must carry” or “retransmission consent.” Network affiliates typically choose to negotiate retransmission for a fee, the amount of which is not publicly disclosed.
Check the retransmission consent disputes category for recent coverage of other disputes.
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