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Turner Networks, Including CNN, Return To Dish Network
by David Lieberman November 21, 2014 9:18am DEADLINE
The companies just made the terse announcement that they have “mutually decided to restore service of CNN, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, truTV, TCM, HLN, CNN en Espanol and Boomerang, and extend the carriage of TBS and TNT” — but will have no “further comment.”
That leaves unanswered the question of whether they have a deal yet. Also unknown is whether Turner’s channels will join Disney, Scripps, and A+E on Dish’s streaming video service, which Chairman Charlie Ergen says he expects to launch before year end.
Turner channels, except for TBS and TNT, have been off of Dish since October 21 with both sides blaming the other for the breakdown in negotiations to extend their carriage deal. Ergen gave Turner an ultimatum this month that if they could not come to terms by the end of November, then Dish might “just make a long-term decision to go a different direction.” He called the loss of the channels a “non-event” for Dish, specifically noting that channels such as CNN a”re not quite the product that they used to be. You can imagine: CNN down on election night would have been a disaster 15 or 20 years ago. Now there are plenty of other places for people to get news.”
Turner said it was mystified and disappointed by Ergen’s attacks “particularly given the fact that Dish agreed to our rates and carriage proposals” and the programmer was “supportive of the Dish OTT effort and had found common ground on the major issues there. While there were clearly deal points to get done, they were not the type you would usually go dark over.”
The approaching December 5 expiration date for Dish’s carriage deal with TBS and TNT — Turner’s most popular channels — may have prompted the companies to compromise. This week Turner began to warn Dish customers that they might lose the channels. “We remain hopeful that we will reach an agreement that restores our networks to the air and eliminates the risk of Dish removing additional Turner networks from its channel lineup,” the company said. Ergen had said earlier that the loss of the two channels “will be more painful.”
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Meanwhile...
CBS Agrees To Short-Term Extension As Dish Negotiations Slog On
by Lisa de Moraes November 20, 2014 3:38pm DEADLINE
CBS this afternoon issued this statement about its negotiations with Dish Network:
“CBS has agreed to a short term extension while negotiations continue.”
The extension keeps CBS on Dish until Tuesday afternoon. Two days earlier the network was much more verbal, when it turned up the heat on Dish as the companies negotiate an extension of the broadcaster’s carriage agreement. “Dish has been deliberately dragging its feet for months,” CBS said Tuesday in a statement aimed at its customers. With the deadline approaching, “Dish appears willing to drop the most popular programming in its entire channel lineup because it won’t negotiate the same sort of deal that other cable, satellite and telco companies have struck with CBS.”
The broadcaster adds that “Not reaching agreements is nothing new for Dish. In fact, Dish has dropped more than 120 stations since 2013 alone, whereas CBS has only had one service disruption” — its much written about showdown with Time Warner Cable.
Late last week CBS began warning Dish subscribers that the No. 2 satellite company “may drop” the network-owned stations in 14 cities including Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Detroit. Dish said at the time that “only CBS can force a blackout of its channels” and that it is “actively working to reach a deal before the contract expires… We are unsure why CBS decided to involve customers in the contract negotiation process at a point when there is time for the two parties to reach a mutually beneficial deal.”
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