LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - A three-way brawl over National Hockey League games has broken out among Comcast, Cablevision and EchoStar, which on Thursday ejected the Comcast-owned OLN channel from its Dish Network lineup.
Earlier this month, Comcast began replacing NHL games scheduled on the channel with other OLN programing on systems run by Cablevision and EchoStar. The two distributors were put in Comcast's penalty box because they put OLN on channel tiers available to fewer than 40 percent of their subscribers, according to a Comcast spokesman.
Sources said EchoStar stunned Comcast brass by yanking the channel without warning. Company executives flew to the satellite service's Denver headquarters Thursday to negotiate a truce, but after 10 minutes of discussion, EchoStar ended the meeting, citing an unspecified crisis.
By the time the Comcast delegation's plane touched down at its home base in Philadelphia, EchoStar had issued a statement signaling its intent to pull the plug.
In a statement Thursday, EchoStar blasted Comcast's "strong-arm tactics," explaining that moving OLN to a more accessible tier would result in the satellite service having to pay more for the channel, a cost it would be forced to pass on to customers.
"We work hard to provide choice for our customers and to keep prices low," EchoStar senior vp programing Eric Sahl said in the statement.
OLN countered with a statement of its own. "We are surprised and disappointed that Dish has unilaterally chosen to stop providing OLN to its customers. ... We are also disappointed that EchoStar cut off the ongoing discussions with
OLN."
MORE BAD NEWS FOR HOCKEY
The OLN blackout represents a setback for the perennially struggling NHL, which signed away its TV rights to Comcast in August for a three-year deal estimated to be worth $200 million. After ESPN declined to pick up another hockey season amid poor ratings and a lockout that canceled the 2004-05 season, the league suddenly is seeing its visibility reduced in key markets like the New York-New Jersey area that Cablevision serves.
Thus begins another contentious face-off between programing and distribution in the subscription-TV world, which, like hockey itself, is occasionally marred by nasty battles pitting combatants capable of landing low blows.
EchoStar chairman and CEO Charlie Ergen has shown that he is more than willing to pull the jersey over a programmer's head. In March 2004, he removed all Viacom-owned channels from Dish Network for 48 hours before reaching a new carriage deal with the conglomerate. In January 2001, it took a federal injunction to keep EchoStar from dumping Walt Disney Co.-owned ABC Family in a similar fracas.
But now EchoStar is going toe-to-toe with Comcast, the biggest cable operator in the country and owner of a growing portfolio of channels, including E! Networks, Golf Channel and
G4.
Cablevision has no plans to pull OLN, according to a spokesman. But the operator isn't giving up the fight, either. "We continue to carry OLN, and we continue to call upon them to cease their illegal electronic blocking of hockey games in New York," the spokesman said.
EchoStar currently slots OLN on its America's Top 180 channel package, which isn't as popular among its 11.4 million subscribers. Cablevision slots OLN on a separate sports tier that costs an additional $4.95.
Comcast wants to see both distributors upgrade OLN to channel positions that will put them in front of 40 percent of their subscriber bases, commonly accepted as the baseline for pro sports programing.
Formerly known as Outdoor Life Network, OLN is available in 65 million homes
