Dish, Frontier Fail To Reach Carriage Agreement

Fox affiliate WGXA Macon, Ga., ABC affiliate WGXA-D go dark for satellite subs

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/1/2011 12:24:28 PM

Dish Network failed to come to terms with Frontier Radio Management for carriage of Fox affiliate WGXA Macon, Ga., and its digital multicast ABC affiliate WGXA-D.

That is according to Dish, which sent out an e-mail early Saturday morning to say that Frontier had declined to offer an extension to keep the signals on the satellite operator's lineup.

"We've been working to reach a fair agreement with DISH that would allow its subscribers to continue receiving both Fox24 and ABC16. Unfortunately, to date, DISH has not accepted our offers of resolution. Despite our best efforts to negotiate in good faith with DISH, we do not have an agreement for carriage on DISH beginning January 1, 2011," the station said on its Web site.

"Frontier Radio Management...has blocked DISH Network customers from accessing its channels after refusing to negotiate a fair agreement before the contract expired at 12:01 a.m. ET Jan. 1, 2011," said Dish in its statement. "DISH Network offered to extend the contract so negotiations could continue, but Frontier Radio Management refused and demanded more than double the current rate to bring the channels back. That's like paying $7 a gallon for gas. It's unacceptable and irresponsible."

The American Television Alliance, of which Dish is a member, Saturday said that continued retrans impasses argue for FCC intervention in the process.

The commission has telegraphed its plans to propose changes to the retransmission consent process, at minimum clarifying the definition of good faith bargaining, which the FCC is expressly entitled to enforce.