Official SatelliteGuys CBS / DISH Dispute Thread

[mikew]

This was the final straw. I'm done with Dish, after many years. I should have dropped them when they couldn't come to any terms with the NYC RSNs, and I've been without local sports now for years. The constant drop outs during NY weather, and paying through the nose, when compared to cable offerings in the area. The carriage disputes that go on for months. I've had it. I called customer service Wednesday, and all I got was "Please, please, we're working on it!" When I brought up lack of NYC Sports, specifically MSG Networks, I got the same line. Working on it for over seven years? Give me a break and don't insult my intelligence. My family is delighted to hear that we're dumping Dish.

I can't believe, after seven years, a customer would stay with Dish if that was an issue for them. It seemed to me that any sports fan in NY would have chosen a different provider LONG ago.

 

[comfortably_numb]

I can't believe, after seven years, a customer would stay with Dish if that was an issue for them. It seemed to me that any sports fan in NY would have chosen a different provider LONG ago.

Or choose different sports teams.

Go Cardinals

 

[bwexler]

I almost missed this whole mess.
I DVR everything I watch. I only saw the crawl on thanksgiving. When I checked on Black Friday morning CBS LA was back on.
Did I miss any new NCIS episodes? Did I miss an opportunity to ask for some money?
I haven't read this entire thread.

 

[charlesrshell]

I almost missed this whole mess.
I DVR everything I watch. I only saw the crawl on thanksgiving. When I checked on Black Friday morning CBS LA was back on.
Did I miss any new NCIS episodes? Did I miss an opportunity to ask for some money?
I haven't read this entire thread.

I don't think you missed NCIS.

 

[pattykay]

Part of me was hoping that when the stations were restored that POP, CBS SN, and Smithsonian would have ONLY been in HD, no SD. Just for the sake of seeing steps towards phasing out SD as station contracts came up for renewal.

Smithsonian already is that way, on Eastern Arc anyway.

I just checked, and CBSSN is also HD-only on Eastern Arc. That just leaves POP, which is SD-only on both arcs.

 

[zippyfrog]

I just checked, and CBSSN is also HD-only on Eastern Arc. That just leaves POP, which is SD-only on both arcs.

Thanks. Definitely all in SD on Western Arc. When Dish added the Olympic Channel in only HD on both arcs, I thought that was going to be a start of adding channels only in HD to Western Arc.

 

[pattykay]

Thanks. Definitely all in SD on Western Arc. When Dish added the Olympic Channel in only HD on both arcs, I thought that was going to be a start of adding channels only in HD to Western Arc.

Well, in the case of CBSSN and Smithsonian, it was the return of channels that had previously been offered, not a new channel launch. So, Dish simply put things back exactly the way they were before the dispute started.

 

[charlesrshell]

Well, in the case of CBSSN and Smithsonian, it was the return of channels that had previously been offered, not a new channel launch. So, Dish simply put things back exactly the way they were before the dispute started.

Well, I am grateful for that. Wish we got AutoHop back too.

 

[ChadT41]

Well, I am grateful for that. Wish we got AutoHop back too.

CBS is never going to give up autohop after 8 days or more. It would be great and funny if Dish activated autohop on OTA channels that have a satellite counter the next day. The stations couldn’t do anything about that, as Dish has no responsibility or obligation to their OTA channel. That would encourage more customers to use OTA, and drop satellite locAls, saving everyone more money, and screwing the broadcasters out of two of their paydays in the process. Fight back. Haha, it’s a pipe dream.

 

[charlesrshell]

CBS is never going to give up autohop after 8 days or more. It would be great and funny if Dish activated autohop on OTA channels that have a satellite counter the next day. The stations couldn’t do anything about that, as Dish has no responsibility or obligation to their OTA channel. That would encourage more customers to use OTA, and drop satellite locAls, saving everyone more money, and screwing the broadcasters out of two of their paydays in the process. Fight back. Haha, it’s a pipe dream.

What a great idea. Wish we could ask Charlie about that.

 

[Bobby]

Thanks. Definitely all in SD on Western Arc. When Dish added the Olympic Channel in only HD on both arcs, I thought that was going to be a start of adding channels only in HD to Western Arc.

CBSSN is HD on western arc, always has been...

 

[zippyfrog]

CBSSN is HD on western arc, always has been...

Sorry, that wasn't clear on my part. I meant "definitely all in SD" compared to just POP on EA. I knew that both CBSSN and Smith were in HD on both arcs.

 

[The Fat Man]

I didn't say this during the outage, but Dish should rethink how they state a local being dropped during a dispute, on the channel cards.

For Boston, it stated "WBZ took away (or whatever variant) CBS4." It was more like CBS took away WBZ 4. My big deal with the semantics is that they shouldn't make it sound as if the local affiliate was to blame. It was the greedy network that owned the local affiliate. CBS wanted to be pulled, not necessarily WBZ or whatever local affiliate was taken in your market. That goes a long way to address the issue. They did the same thing when the Hearst stations were taken down last summer. "WCVB took away ABC 5." Again, no, Hearst took away WCVB (ABC) 5.

 

[ChadT41]

I don’t think they can say that. Technically, it would be the station withholding the signal.

 

[pattykay]

I didn't say this during the outage, but Dish should rethink how they state a local being dropped during a dispute, on the channel cards.

For Boston, it stated "WBZ took away (or whatever variant) CBS4." It was more like CBS took away WBZ 4. My big deal with the semantics is that they shouldn't make it sound as if the local affiliate was to blame. It was the greedy network that owned the local affiliate. CBS wanted to be pulled, not necessarily WBZ or whatever local affiliate was taken in your market. That goes a long way to address the issue. They did the same thing when the Hearst stations were taken down last summer. "WCVB took away ABC 5." Again, no, Hearst took away WCVB (ABC) 5.

Dish probably does it this way so they can boiler-plate cut-and-paste the take-down message from the guide data for the station. (call letters, network affiliation, channel number) The name of the company that owns the station is not included in the guide data (except for network owned stations such as the recent CBS dispute) so the "Hearst" in your example could not automatically be filled-in as easily. Someone would have to manually add it.

 

[sam_gordon]

I don’t think they can say that. Technically, it would be the station withholding the signal.

The stations don't really have a lot of say. The owners do. And since we're talking semantics, neither the station nor the owners is "withholding" the signal. It still gets sent to the MVPD, the MVPD just can't forward it on to their subscribers.

 

[ChadT41]

The station is blocking the retransmission consent under the pressure of their owner, such as Hearst.

 

[sam_gordon]

The station is blocking the retransmission consent under the pressure of their owner, such as Hearst.

So you think the station can tell the MVPD "sure, go ahead and air us"? At that level the stations don't even talk to the MVPDs.

 

[ChadT41]

No I don’t. What I said was the station is withholding consent. I also said it was because their owner is forcing them to.

 

[NYDutch]

The station owner negotiates the retransmission contracts and directs their station(s) compliance with those contracts. End of story...