More press coverage of the deal
Glad I got called this morning and got my free 3 months of Starz and 3 free PPVs. A fair trade for one month without the Fox channels.
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October 29, 2010, 5:36 pm New Deal Ends Channel Blackout on Dish Network
By BRIAN STELTER Dish Network and News Corporation’s Fox Networks unit announced a new distribution agreement on Friday, restoring Fox’s regional sports networks in Dish households after a four-week blackout.
The regional sports networks, along with FX and the National Geographic Channel, will be immediately restored for Dish’s 14 million customers, the two companies said in a joint press release Friday afternoon.
With the agreement, Dish also averts what was an impending blackout of the Fox broadcast network. Dish’s contract for that network was due to expire at the end of the month, and there had been questions about whether the two sides would come to new terms, given that News Corporation is deep in a dispute with Cablevision over the same right to retransmit Fox’s local stations.
The stations have been blocked in Cablevision households for two weeks, and there is no sign of an immediate resolution.
Dish is making it look comparatively easy.
“After prolonged negotiations to reach a fair deal, we’re pleased to enter into a long term agreement with Fox and to assure our customers that they can continue to enjoy these channels,” Dave Shull, the senior vice president of programming for Dish, said in a statement. As is common in these agreements, the financial terms were not disclosed.
Mike Hopkins, the president of Fox Networks’ affiliate sales and marketing unit, thanked Dish, saying that they “worked tirelessly to help us reach a successful conclusion.”
In a stark contrast, Cablevision and Fox representatives have not held serious negotiations since the middle of last week.
Cablevision has been arguing that the regulatory system for retransmission negotiations is broken and that government intervention is needed. Now Fox can point to the Dish negotiations as evidence that the government need not be involved — and point is exactly what it did on Friday afternoon.
“This clearly demonstrates that the system isn’t broken,” said a Fox executive close to negotiations, who insisted on anonymity because Fox and Dish Network were saying nothing more in public about the new agreement.
When asked if the negotiators who have been handling the Cablevision and Dish deals were exhausted, the Fox executive said, “No. Beyond exhausted.”
breaking dish post - NYTimes.com
Glad I got called this morning and got my free 3 months of Starz and 3 free PPVs. A fair trade for one month without the Fox channels.
*********************************
October 29, 2010, 5:36 pm New Deal Ends Channel Blackout on Dish Network
By BRIAN STELTER Dish Network and News Corporation’s Fox Networks unit announced a new distribution agreement on Friday, restoring Fox’s regional sports networks in Dish households after a four-week blackout.
The regional sports networks, along with FX and the National Geographic Channel, will be immediately restored for Dish’s 14 million customers, the two companies said in a joint press release Friday afternoon.
With the agreement, Dish also averts what was an impending blackout of the Fox broadcast network. Dish’s contract for that network was due to expire at the end of the month, and there had been questions about whether the two sides would come to new terms, given that News Corporation is deep in a dispute with Cablevision over the same right to retransmit Fox’s local stations.
The stations have been blocked in Cablevision households for two weeks, and there is no sign of an immediate resolution.
Dish is making it look comparatively easy.
“After prolonged negotiations to reach a fair deal, we’re pleased to enter into a long term agreement with Fox and to assure our customers that they can continue to enjoy these channels,” Dave Shull, the senior vice president of programming for Dish, said in a statement. As is common in these agreements, the financial terms were not disclosed.
Mike Hopkins, the president of Fox Networks’ affiliate sales and marketing unit, thanked Dish, saying that they “worked tirelessly to help us reach a successful conclusion.”
In a stark contrast, Cablevision and Fox representatives have not held serious negotiations since the middle of last week.
Cablevision has been arguing that the regulatory system for retransmission negotiations is broken and that government intervention is needed. Now Fox can point to the Dish negotiations as evidence that the government need not be involved — and point is exactly what it did on Friday afternoon.
“This clearly demonstrates that the system isn’t broken,” said a Fox executive close to negotiations, who insisted on anonymity because Fox and Dish Network were saying nothing more in public about the new agreement.
When asked if the negotiators who have been handling the Cablevision and Dish deals were exhausted, the Fox executive said, “No. Beyond exhausted.”
breaking dish post - NYTimes.com
