NAB Assails Dish Letters to TV Station Advertisers
Dish Network is diving into "darker, more dastardly ... tactics" in its frequent retransmission consent loggerheads with broadcasters, contacting advertisers using stations with which it's at impasse, telling them they're getting less for their ad spends and encouraging them to…
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contact the stations, said NAB Associate General Counsel Scott Goodwin in a blog post Wednesday. NAB lambasted Dish in connection with its retrans fight with Tribune Broadcasting and the lawsuit the satellite-TV provider filed against Tribune (see 1606240064). Goodwin said Dish "routinely sets out to damage the relationship between local stations and their advertisers" but didn't say if the company was employing those tactics against advertisers on Tribune stations. "The intended effect of this campaign is clear -- punish stations for not acceding to DISH’s demands," Goodwin wrote. "Impasses already hurt local stations far more than they do pay-TV providers, especially major national pay-TV providers like DISH. These DISH letters are designed to amplify that pain and force stations into submission. With these facts apparent, DISH can be seen for what it really is: villain and not victim." Dish didn't comment.