ATLANTA, Jan. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Gray Television,
Inc. ("Gray," "we," "us" or "our") (NYSE: GTN and GTN.A)
announced today that pay-TV provider Dish Network has decided to
stop carrying all television stations owned and/or operated by Gray
Television at 7:00 pm Eastern on
Tuesday, January 17, 2017. Dish
currently carries 99 separate program streams under its expiring
carriage agreement with Gray.
"We are shocked and disappointed to learn that Dish Network has
decided to impose yet another blackout on its customers by taking
away our stations, which broadcast some of the most highly rated
programming on any broadcast or cable channel in their markets,"
said Kevin Latek, Gray's Chief Legal
and Development Officer.
Gray Television owns the number one- or number two-ranked
television station in over 50 markets. In many of these
markets, Gray's television stations have higher ratings in certain
dayparts than every other broadcast station and cable channel
combined. Despite the obvious popularity of Gray's
stations, Dish has refused after many months to even begin
negotiating carriage terms that are consistent with those that Dish
has provided to other broadcasters and cable channels.
Recently, Gray offered Dish an extension that would have
continued carriage beyond tomorrow's deadline, but Dish refused to
accept it. Neither our stations nor the government nor Dish's
millions of fee-paying customers can force Dish to continue
carrying our stations when, as here, it chooses to take leading
stations off of its system for perceived leverage in private
carriage negotiations. Indeed, in the last two years, Dish
has dropped more than 200 local television stations. And in
just the last two weeks, Dish has dropped or threatened to drop
over 115 additional local broadcast channels owned and/or operated
by Gray Television as well as local independent broadcasters
Bonten Media, Griffin Communications, and Bonneville.
For these reasons, it is not likely that any blackout imposed by
Dish tomorrow will end soon. Sadly, Dish customers who wish
to receive our award winning and highly rated programming will most
likely need to switch to another pay-TV provider.
To be clear, Dish's actions will not affect customers of
Directv, Comcast Xfinity, Charter Spectrum, Cox Cable and other
local providers. Our company has reached long term agreements
with several hundred other major cable and satellite distributors,
virtually all without any disruptions or even public statements
about our negotiations.
"It is unfortunate that Dish does not see the same value in our
programming as every other operator. Regardless, we will
continue to offer the same high quality programming as we always
have, and we will continue to serve our community as we have done
for decades," said Mr. Latek.
For more information, please visit keeptvlocal.com.
To view the original version on PR Newswire,
visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dish-network-decides-to-drop-gray-television-stations-300391467.html
SOURCE Gray Television, Inc.