I know that we have no knowledge on the ESPN/Dish TV contracts, but I found this interesting:
http://about.dish.com/press-release/programming/dish-network-adds-espn2-hd-channel-line-0
One of Dish's press releases from 2006 - they launched ESPN2HD on Feb 1, 2006. If they had a 7 year contract for ESPN2HD carriage, it would be expiring at the end of this month. I couldn't find anything at a later date regarding ESPN2, but I did see where they launched ESPNU later in the year. Also, I see Comcast, Cox, Cablevision, Charter, and U-Verse all signed new contracts with Disney recently (
http://multichannel.com/telco-tv/disney-strikes-u-verse-carriage-deal/141232). With all these deals being signed, you know it is only a matter of time before Dish and Directv need to renew.
Scott - I know you don't have info on specific contracts, but do you have any knowledge on re-transmission agreements in general? Is 7 years a reasonable length of a contract?