Dish, Tegna Say Avoiding a Blackout Still Possible as Retrans Contract Expires
Dish Network still hopes to reach a retransmission consent deal before a Tegna contract expires Wednesday, leading to a blackout of 51 local channels in 39 markets, the satellite company said Saturday. “Since we offered to retroactively true them up…
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when new rates were agreed upon, Tegna has nothing to lose and consumers have everything to gain from an extension of our existing contract that would allow negotiations to continue,” said Warren Schlichting, Dish senior vice president-programming. “Tegna has not accepted our offer and has chosen to use consumers to gain leverage for the economic benefit of Tegna, while potentially causing substantial harm and disruption to the lives of those very same consumers who ultimately will bear the brunt of the unfair price increases sought by Tegna.” In response, Tegna said in a statement that Dish subscribers and its viewers "are best served through a long-term contract for carriage of our local stations. If both parties remain 100 percent focused on productive, market-based negotiations there is no reason a deal cannot be reached before the contract expires. Tegna remains entirely committed to that goal."