Dish Network Drops CBS Channels in Some Markets
November 21 2017 - 9:29AM
Dow Jones News
By Cara Lombardo
CBS Corp. channels went dark for some Dish Network Corp.
subscribers overnight as a pricing dispute between the two
companies dragged on, potentially leaving more than two million
customers without access to NFL and college football coverage on
the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
Dish dropped CBS and several other local television stations
owned by CBS late Monday night and early Tuesday morning in markets
including New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Chicago, CBS said
Tuesday. The action, which didn't affect all of Dish's 13.2 million
subscribers, came after the two sides failed to reach a new
carriage deal before their current contract ended.
The programmer said its CBS Sports Network, Pop and the
Smithsonian channel had also been dropped.
CBS and Dish traded blame for the standoff. CBS said Dish was
punishing its subscribers instead of negotiating fair prices for
content it carries. Dish said CBS wanted Dish customers to pay more
for programming that is declining in viewership and free over the
air.
Dish said it has been giving eligible customers the option to
drop local channels in exchange for a $10 reduction of their
monthly bill and offering to install antennas at no cost. The
company said thousands of customers have already chosen to remove
local channels from their lineups.
CBS's Thanksgiving weekend coverage includes a Thanksgiving Day
matchup between the National Football League's Dallas Cowboys and
Los Angeles Chargers, more NFL games on Sunday and Southeastern
Conference college football games Friday and Saturday.
Other markets where CBS programming disappeared overnight
include Philadelphia, San Francisco, Atlanta, Boston, Seattle,
Tampa, Detroit, Minneapolis, Miami, Denver, Sacramento, Pittsburgh
and Baltimore.
Disagreements between the two companies also caused CBS channels
to go dark for Dish subscribers in 2014.
In that case, the two sides reached a deal the next day.
Dish and CBS shares, down 14% and 12% this year, respectively,
were inactive premarket Tuesday.
Write to Cara Lombardo at cara.lombardo@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 21, 2017 09:14 ET (14:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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