Citadel-Dish Talks At Impasse
Attempt to bring sides to agreement falls flat.
By Michael Malone -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/27/2008 12:44:00 PM
A retransmission consent spat between Citadel Communications and satellite provider Dish Network continues after a conference call earlier this week failed to bring the sides to an agreement.
Citadel President/COO Ray Cole said in a statement posted prominently on the WOI Des Moines Website that a pact was “increasingly doubtful” before the start of the fall season, which includes program premieres, football and the start of the NASCAR campaign.
“I am disappointed to report, however, that the DISH Network continues to be inflexible and appears to have drawn a line in the sand...a line which makes it increasingly doubtful that we can reach a fair and equitable agreement prior to the start” of the fall season, he wrote.
According to Multichannel News, the affected stations include WOI, WHBF Davenport, KLKN Lincoln and KCAU Sioux City.
All four feature a large banner reading “Important Information For Dish Network Subscribers” on their homepage, which links to Cole’s letter.
Cole recommends affected viewers either call Dish directly, sign up for DirecTV or cable, or find rabbit ears for their televisions.
A Dish spokesperson said "we're really not commenting on Citadel."
Cole said Citadel “will remain committed to engaging DISH in the hope that, sooner rather than later, DISH will show flexibility and a concern for fairness.”
Earlier this month, boards representing the Big Four affiliate organizations agreed to support a month-long “quiet period” ensuring no disruption of local TV service on cable, satellite and telco TV from Feb. 4-March 4. The National Association of Broadcasters’ television board of directors also pledged to continue making local TV signals available on pay TV to avoid viewer confusion when the broadcasting world turns off its analog signals Feb. 17.
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I live in a Citadel affiliate's market and have lived in two of the other three. My occupation is such that I frequently work with approving our company's advertising expenditures, so I'm very familiar with how all of these stations are doing from a viewership standpoint. The thing people who have never lived here don't understand is that the Citadel stations are VERY, VERY weak performers. I can't over emphasize how weak their audience size is. For an example, at one point when we were relooking at where to allocate our advertising dollars during the local newscasts we didn't allocate ANYTHING to WOI because it had less than a 1 share in the Des Moines market. These stations are frequently run on a shoestring budget. When Citadel bought the station in the town I live in now they were the powerhouse station in town. The station was also quite profitable at that time. Citadel then cut expenditures to a bare minimum shortly after acquiring them, costing them all of their then highly rated local talent and reducing the quality of their local programming. Eventually it even started to impact their signal. Needless to say it didn't take long after the purchase for this once strong and profitable station to be very weak both in terms of viewers and financially. To Dish Network, while this is a loss, its not as much of one as it might seem. They can far easier afford to lose this station group, and keep the others, than Citadel can afford to lose the additional distribution that the Dish retransmission offers them.
Steven Harris - 9/6/2008 12:04:00 PM EDT -
Ok. Sounds great, but again the judge took my locals off Dish. So I look at it this way, Take ALL locals off ALL providers and every one just go outside and relax and forget the TV, after all that is what the judge likes.
Kasy Sanyo - 8/31/2008 8:18:00 AM EDT -
I don't live in the target market, but this kind of 'brinksmanship', where
the subscribers are held hostage, is exactly the reason I cancelled my
long-held Dish (over 10 year) subscription. After the NBC/Young
Broadcasting issue I was forced to get cable in order to receive network
programming. Once the camel's nose is under the tent...
Beth Randy Grunstein - 8/28/2008 11:57:00 AM EDT
Citadel and Dish Square Off in Retrans Row
08/26/2008Dish Restores Four Citadel Stations
09/10/2008Headlines from Multichannel News
01/09/2009
