Dish Gears Up for Retrans Battle

Must reach agreement with Schurz Communications by midnight Friday

By Mike Farrell, Multichannel News -- Broadcasting & Cable, 12/17/2012 5:33:00 PM

Dish Network subscribers in six cities could lose access to local programming if the satellite giant does not reach a retransmission consent agreement with Schurz Communications by midnight Friday.

Mishawaka, Ind.-based Schurz owns TV stations KTUU (NBC) in Anchorage, Alaska; KY3 (NBC), KCZ (The CW) and KSPR (ABC) in Springfield, Mo.; WDBJ (CBS) in Roanoke, Va,; WSBT (CBS) in South Bend, Ind.; WAGT (NBC) in Augusta, Ga.; and KWCH (CBS) and KSCW (The CW) in Wichita, Kan.

Dish's current agreement with Schurz is set to expire at 12:01 a.m. on Dec. 21. If an agreement or extension is not reached by then, Dish customers in those cities could lose access to sports programming like college and NFL football and entertainment programming like NCIS, Chicago Fire and Modern Family.

Click here to read the full story at Multichannel News.