Retrans Row Knocks 10 Young Stations Off Dish
KRON San Francisco among stations affected as Young Broadcasting, Dish Network failed to reach retransmission consent deal
By John Eggerton and Michael Malone -- Broadcasting & Cable, 12/12/2008 4:56:00 AM
A retransmission consent contract between Young Broadcasting and satellite provider Dish Network has expired, knocking 10 Young stations off the air for Dish subscribers. The Young stations include KRON San Francisco, WTEN Albany and WRIC Richmond.
WRIC put it this way: "Unfortunately DISH has chosen to drop WRIC-TV8. We tried to for several months to reach a fair agreement that does not discriminate against this station. We will continue to seek a fair and reasonable agreement with DISH.
"You may continue to receive our great programs on WRIC-TV8 by alternative means. Your choices include free over the air, through satellite with DIRECTV, your local cable company or in some areas your local phone company."
DISH saw it somewhat differently, saying it would try to hammer out a deal, framing its decision not to meet Young's price as unwillingness to pass along that increase to customers in the form of higher prices.
In a press release issued Thursday in all affected markets, this one tailored to WTEN, DISH called Young's rate increases unreasonable, pointed out it was contracturally obligated to drop the stations.
"Young Broadcasting, Inc. is demanding unreasonable contract terms and an excessive rate increase for continued carriage on DISH Network," DISH said. "[T]hose demands would translate into a significant cost increase that DISH Network would have to pass along to its customers in the form of higher monthly bills."
DISH pointed subscribers to a Website it had set up showing bewildered customers and the word "Confused?" DISH asked unhappy customers to contact Young Broadcasting directly to express themselves and included a phone number for that purpose.
The use of "Confused?" played to the argument made by multichannel video providers to the FCC when asking it to step in and prevent signals from being pulled during the months leading up to the DTV transition. They suggest it will confuse viewers who may think it is related to the DTV switch rather than carriage deal impasses.
The affected markets are Lansing, MI.; Lafayette, LA.; Albany, NY.; Nashville, TN.; Knoxville, TN.; Green Bay, WI.; Richmond, VA.; Davenport, IA; San Francisco, CA.; Sioux Falls, SD.; and Rapid City, SD.
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Day 3 of the pissing contest between Young and Dish. I have raised $5.87 at a bake sale to pay toward the ransom. My local affiliate says the sticking point is one penny per customer. I will share my new found wealth with 586 of my fellow detainees. I just need to know where to make the drop. The dude in the green shirt needs a break; he hasn't stopped for days. He must be on meth.
bill brewer - 12/14/2008 12:06:00 PM EST -
I agree wiht the prior post. He is right on target. Young Broadcasting is looking for a bail out.
Take a look at their "investment" page on their crappy 1985 website. Thier stock was over $1.50, not it's 3 cents. What about their stockholders getting .......
Dish should just buy them out at 3 cents a share.
Manny - 12/14/2008 7:46:00 AM EST -
All this fingerpointing!!
Each side accuses the other one for being at fault.
If the parties spent a fraction of their energies looking at ways they could both benefit instead of posting the other party''s contact information so aggrieved customers will take sides, they could probably have solved this by now. All they achieve now is that they both lose.
Maybe viewers' leverage is in making the loss big enough to get everyone''s attention. Have you lost the ability to get the local news and weather because of this? No, because you can do just what WRIC suggested: look on the internet or get their over the air programming (at least until the February digital changeover). Maybe what we as viewers learn from this is that we don''t really need the local stations on DISH at all.
In that case, why don''t we as viewers get together and pressure both sides to get a resolution? Why don''t we cancel all our local Dish coverage. Sure all the locals lose their DISH audience but we''d also save the extra monthly fee for local programming.
It''s true that we would lose access to some enjoyable network and syndicated programming (although a lot of that is on the Internet too), but we''d be taking as stand against being used as pawns by DISH-WRIC in a business-business battle which, in the interest of their customers, they need to resolve themselves.
Wendy Gray - 12/13/2008 1:01:00 PM EST -
My husband & I have just started with Dishnetwork - We use to have Comcast,Richmond,VA until costs became an issue. We live in Powhatan County, VA.I can''t tell you just how upset we are about these disputes over losing ABC(Channel 8-Local Channel)in our area!Wonderful,informative local news & great programming!!Looks like there is, as usual in business, these days, a lot of greed behind the scenes. We''re willing to pay a couple dollars more per month to keep WRIC on air thru Satellite Dishnetwork! MUST NOT BE ENOUGH OTHER PROBLEMS TO DISPUTE, OTHER THAN DOLLARS!!!
Patricia Morris - 12/13/2008 11:03:00 AM EST -
Young can't sell it's own ad's cuts staff and then begs cable and sat providers to bail them out - next they will be asking our govternment to give them bail out money like the big 3 is doing - the best Young can do for us is to forget about broadcasting and sell all the stations at a discount price (if anyone would want to buy them in the 1st place)they have piss poor management and there raing prove IT, best they could do is get out of the news business, in Nashville, TN they will always be in 3rd place in local news!!
Ken Byers - 12/13/2008 9:56:00 AM EST
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