DISH DISH Network Corporation

By Tess Stynes 

Dish Network Corp. is asking Tribune Media Co. to let an arbitrator settle a dispute over a new distribution agreement and end a blackout of Tribune's 42 television stations and WGN cable channel to the satellite broadcaster's customers.

On Sunday night, roughly 5 million Dish subscribers in 33 markets across 34 states and the District of Columbia lost access to local TV stations owned by Tribune. About 7 million weren't receiving the WGN America network.

"We want to return these local stations to our customers immediately, and binding, baseball-style arbitration offers a path to reach a fair deal and to serve the best interests of our customers," said Warren Schlichting, Dish programming executive in prepared remarks Wednesday.

At issue are fees that Tribune is seeking for carriage of its stations and WGN America.

In a statement later Thursday, a Tribune Media spokesman said Dish's proposal for arbitration was "nothing more than a hollow offer."

Instead, Tribune proposed to have the Federal Communications Commission chairman monitor negotiations between the two companies. To restore access for Dish's customers to Tribune's stations, the spokesman said, "the easiest path forward" is to accept Tribune's repeated offer to extend their contract to the end of August, adding that Dish still hasn't countered an offer Tribune made late Sunday.

Dish Network has contended that Tribune is demanding an unreasonable price increase for its local channels, which are available free with an antenna. In addition, an increase for WGN America isn't warranted because the channel no longer carries Chicago Cubs games and its ratings are down in Dish homes, the satellite broadcaster previously has said.

Tribune previously had said the deal it offered Dish was the same one it has with other pay-TV distributors.

Such fights over distribution fees have become commonplace in the television industry.

Write to Tess Stynes at tess.stynes@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 16, 2016 17:55 ET (21:55 GMT)

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