Tribune Broadcasting Company Blacks Out DISH Customers in 33 Markets;

[EddieZ]

Super-secret insider info ----> beat me up if you want to for spreading rumors, but here is something -

Had a trouble call yesterday on a misaligned dish and tech said that employees got an email yesterday indicating Tribune dispute was expected to end "in a day or two". Tech seemed reasonable (i.e. not insane) and not prone to hyperbole (or lying). So he was serious about what he was saying.

Take that as you will.

 

[ChadT41]

Channels come back as soon as an agreement is in place. Anyone putting dates or times stamps on this is already wrong. I very strongly doubt the validity of his statement.

 

[long_time_DNC]

I'd like it if the guy were right though...

 

[Joe Capitano]

Meanwhile, here's the "Belive It Or Not" Moment of the day. As Tribune keeps shooting itself in the foot Sinclair, which already has bigtime, is trying to make amends.

Sinclair embarks on ‘Broadcast TV Liberation Tour,’ hands out $1M in free antennas

Well, somebody's got to do it. Especially when your company owns way too many stations to count with all your fingers and toes and, as I remember, they bought another that makes transmitter antennas.

Good on them.

 

[Hall]

Had a trouble call yesterday on a misaligned dish and tech said that employees got an email yesterday indicating Tribune dispute was expected to end "in a day or two". Tech seemed reasonable (i.e. not insane) and not prone to hyperbole (or lying). So he was serious about what he was saying.

Nothing against that technician, but they by no means are going to have access to that type of "insider info" anymore than phone reps. If Dish was circulating info like that internally, plenty of people would be reporting that here too and I haven't seen it myself.

 

[Chris Walker]

WGN Spin on Negotiations

http://wgntv.com/2016/08/15/update-on-dish-network-contract-dispute/

I love how Tribune is trying to muddy the waters and confuse the average customer with this "you are missing all these great sports on WGN, including a historic Cubs season!" without mentioning it's only the Chicago market that even gets this version of WGN. Meanwhile, myself living in North Carolina, and others are "missing" 24/7 reruns of Walker, Texas Ranger. Fix your piece of sh*t channel and maybe Dish wouldn't be fighting you tooth and nail to get rid of it.

 

[Hall]

I love how Tribune is trying to muddy the waters and confuse the average customer with this...

That "story" or report was from the local Chicago news station. That was not from "Tribune Media". Well, I'm sure Tribune Media has advised all of their stations to do a similar "story" actually !

 

[jegrant]

Yeah, I bet if they would offer WGN Chicago nationwide, with almost all of the WGN-produced Chicago programming, then people would be interested. What few people want is another channel with 22 hours a day of reruns of syndicated shows.

 

[Chris Walker]

Yeah, I bet if they would offer WGN Chicago nationwide, with almost all of the WGN-produced Chicago programming, then people would be interested. What few people want is another channel with 22 hours a day of reruns of syndicated shows.

Exactly. I grew up watching the old version of WGN: Bozo the Clown, Cubs games, Bulls games, etc. It used to truly be a must-have. It's trash now and at this point I don't even know why it still exists other than just the name recognition from the past,

 

[dennispap]

That "story" or report was from the local Chicago news station. That was not from "Tribune Media". Well, I'm sure Tribune Media has advised all of their stations to do a similar "story" actually !

Yes but today our local tribune station ran that same piece on our local news. They are hoping people are not totally paying attention to the facts. After that video our local news anchor was saying you had 3 options. OTA, cable or directv .

 

[schneider21]

Nothing will come from it, but it felt good to get this off my chest in sending it to my local Tribune station:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I know this is a decision made at the corporate level and WPMT has little input into the re-transmission negotiations, but I thought it important to let you know that Tribune's handling of this dispute has cost you a viewer.

For what it's worth, watching Fox programming can be done online. I haven't missed any of the network programming - though the convenience of turning on the tv and having it at my fingertips is, admittedly, something that I do miss.

Something that you'll miss come ratings time is my viewing of Fox43 news. I was a faithful viewer of the 10pm news for the past decade and a half. As you know, viewing habits can be hard to change - even when new options are available. I never had any interest in watching channel 15's offering at 10 and channel 8's 10pm offering isn't available on Dish.

Now that Fox43 is dark on Dish, I've sought out the 10pm news on channel 15 and, to my surprise, I find that I rather like the personalities and format. Even if Fox43 News at 10 were to come back to Dish tonight, I doubt that I'll return as a viewer, since I was forced by Tribune to change my routines and now have new viewing habits.

Obviously, I'm not privy to the numbers that the disagreement is about, but it seems to me that a few cents worth of a disagreement with Dish vs. losing a long time viewer for your flagship news program is a losing proposition for the local station.

I have no intentions of moving to DirecTV or Comcast and putting up an antenna is an option that I'll pursue once NFL season starts, but even then - it is doubtful that I'll return to watch Evan and Mary-Ellen and Todd at 10pm.​

 

[Hall]

Yes but today our local tribune station ran that same piece on our local news

All the more proof that this piece was dictated at the corporate level and it wasn't a local manager who created it.

 

[The Fat Man]

Ironically, with Strike Zone and my friends with Extra Innings, I'm not missing much of Cubs games at all. In fact, a portion of Chicago based subs aren't musing any WGN programming with OTA. It's a sad day when you can get the games on your RSN, but not on the "free" OTA outlet

 

[vtsat]

He says Direct has great deals.

WGN Spin on Negotiations

http://wgntv.com/2016/08/15/update-on-dish-network-contract-dispute/

There is a, “Suggest a Correction” Icon at this site. Here’s what I wrote:

No mention of the 2.5 times increase Tribune is demanding from Dish and its customers? Or, how Tribune is demanding Dish include WGN to all markets outside of Chicago if they want their locate stations back? This isn’t a news report, it’s propaganda. And a new low for Tribune, and sadly the reporter!!!

 

[kenny9966]

Another Rumor alert... A Dish/Dtv installer (that I have known for many years) told me today that DTV will be in the same boat with Tribune in 2 months. Anyone know when the last DTV deal was struck with this piece of garbage Tribune Media?

 

[zippyfrog]

Another Rumor alert... A Dish/Dtv installer (that I have known for many years) told me today that DTV will be in the same boat with Tribune in 2 months. Anyone know when the last DTV deal was struck with this piece of garbage Tribune Media?

Wikipedia says April 5, 2012 is when the last Tribune DirecTV contract was signed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribune_Broadcasting

 

[ChadT41]

The way I have been hearing it is when ATT renegotiated their contract, they included DTV and that was just a few months back.

 

[stardust3]

The longer this goes the worse this will be for tribune. Remember when Directv dumped the weather channel? When they finally came back they apologized and got less money than they were getting before. Tribune is setting themselves up for the same scenario IMO.

 

[sethwell]

Yes but today our local tribune station ran that same piece on our local news. They are hoping people are not totally paying attention to the facts. After that video our local news anchor was saying you had 3 options. OTA, cable or directv .

Which is dumb because us with Dish aren't seeing the story.

 

[sam_gordon]

No mention of the 2.5 times increase Tribune is demanding from Dish and its customers? Or, how Tribune is demanding Dish include WGN to all markets outside of Chicago if they want their locate stations back?

Is there somewhere official this has been mentioned and I've missed it, or just speculation online?