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Dish Network, Fox in standoff over retransmission fees
A Monday deadline looms that, for Dish Network customers, threatens to take away Fox Broadcasting's NFL and World Series coverage, "Glee" and other shows
Chicago Bears fans probably are used to seeing quarterback Jay Cutler picked off after watching Sunday's loss to Washington on Fox. To have the entire Bears team intercepted, along with much of the National Football League, is another matter.
A Monday deadline looms that, for more than a few viewers, threatens to take away Fox's pro football and World Series baseball coverage, silence "Glee," nuke "The Simpsons" and separate "House" from home.
Dish Network subscribers risk losing all their Fox Broadcasting favorites, caught in the crossfire in just one of the latest skirmishes over retransmission fees, the negotiated per-household fee cable and satellite service networks pay to carry their shows.
Here in Chicago, unless there's an agreement to keep the channels on Dish while talks continue, that means News Corp.-owned WFLD-Ch. 32 and WPWR-Ch. 50 could go blank on the service less than a week before the Bears' next scheduled Fox game, Nov. 7 at Buffalo.
Dish subscribers would have to hook up their TVs to antennas, switch to another provider or find another way to see some of America's most-wanted programs, which "America's Most Wanted" may or may not be considered.
Costly as these battles are, millions more are at stake for both sides. Cable networks rely on dual revenue streams, collecting cash from ad sales and carriage fees paid by service providers such as Comcast, DirecTV and RCN. With the advertising market shifting, broadcast channels and their networks are getting more aggressive. They want similar fee arrangements that make them less reliant on ad revenue.
The channels argue that their content is a big part of why people pay to subscribe to the services, and the content isn't cheap. The providers argue they will just wind up passing increased costs to consumers, and enough is enough.
Until middle ground is reached, it's unpleasant for everyone, especially consumers.
The drill should be familiar by now for Dish customers. Expiration of an earlier contract between Fox parent News Corp. and Dish has meant the loss this month of FX, the National Geographic Channel and Fox's regional sports channels while the two sides remain apart on a new pricing agreement.
Spokespeople for Dish and Fox said Tuesday that they hope to strike a deal soon so affected viewers can go back to watching TV rather than stewing over what they're not getting, complaining and posting angry notes online.
Dish serves 14.3 million households nationally. And that includes roughly 360,000 homes in the Chicago area, according to an industry source. This kind of information is tightly held and considered proprietary. At a little more than 10 percent of the market, it's enough to take a bite out of the ratings for Fox programs as well as Channel 32's newscasts, which can ill-afford a disruption that might scatter viewers elsewhere.
News Corp. is in another ugly standoff with Cablevision, a fight that has drawn attention of the Federal Communications Commission and cost more than 3 million customers their Fox Broadcasting shows for more than a week. Bad as that might be, one can only imagine how much worse it would have been if the New York Yankees advanced to the World Series, which is set to begin Wednesday night on Fox.
As it is, the New York Daily News reported Tuesday that Cablevision customer reps have pointed upset subscribers to Web sites that violate copyright provisions by streaming Fox shows and its coverage of the NFL and Major League Baseball without authorization.
Cablevision has engaged in brinksmanship before when it comes to retransmission fees, however. Its customers lost access to Food Network, which is partly owned by Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co., and HGTV, for three weeks in January.
For 20 hours in March, Cablevision subscribers lost ABC programming, which ultimately was restored during the network's Academy Awards telecast. Otherwise, the Best Picture announcement would have been a blank picture.
When FX, National Geographic and the Fox sports channels came off Dish Network, Dave Shull, Dish's senior vice president of programming, issued a statement saying his company wasn't "going to allow Fox or any programmer to bully our customers into paying such an unconscionable price increase."
Shull accused Fox of "a long history of trying to shake down pay-TV providers, including Cablevision (and) Time Warner," and said Dish subscribers are "already burdened enough in this challenging economy" and "should not be held hostage in order to finance Fox's irresponsible acquisition of sports rights."
News Corp. fired back with a Web site, GetWhatIPaidfor.com, to spin its case, suggest alternative services and urge people to complain. It also has been buying TV ads to warn Dish customers, and everyone else, of the pending deadline that might take WFLD and WPWR off the service.
Make no "Bones" about it, this is a dispute that threatens to arrest "Cops" and black out " Family Guy."
This time, it's Dish. Next time, who knows?
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