New Orleans Fox Station Goes Dark on Dish

Deal for WVUE expired Jan. 31

By Mike Farrell, Multichannel News -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/1/2012 5:39:30 PM

Dish Network subscribers in the New Orleans market lost access to their local Fox affiliate on Jan. 31, after the two parties could not reach a retransmission consent agreement.

According to Dish, WVUE, owned by Louisiana Media, has requested affiliate fee increases of as much as 300%, which the satellite giant has refused to pay.

"We are disappointed that Louisiana Media has chosen to be so unreasonable in its demands, as we know that a significant number of Dish customers in New Orleans enjoy their access to Fox programs," said Dish senior VP of programming, David Shull, in a statement.

On its website, WVUE acknowledged that its Dish retransmission consent agreement expired on Jan, 31.

"We have been continuing negotiations with Dish in order to reach a fair agreement and to restore Dish's carriage of WVUE," the station said on its website.