Youngstown Station Goes Dark on Dish

Claims locally owned broadcaster demanding 250% increase

By Mike Farrell, Multichannel News -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/6/2012 4:32:17 PM

Dish Network said Friday that Youngstown, Ohio, NBC-affiliate WFMJ has gone dark to its customers in that region after the parties could not reach a retransmission consent agreement.

Dish claims that it has been in negotiations with WFMJ for months, but would not bend to its demands for a more than 250% increase in rates.

"We are disappointed that WFMJ has chosen to be so unreasonable in their demands, because we know a significant number of Dish customers enjoy getting their local news, sports and weather on the NBC affiliate," said Dish vice president of programming Andrew LeCuyer in a statement. "Essentially, they are taking our customers hostage in these negotiations. We hope WFMJ will soon become more reasonable so we can resume broadcast of this channel on Dish."

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