Remember that WGN Chicago was a CW affiliate. There are many markets where Dish still doesn't carry the local CW station. Also, WGN Chicago will soon no longer be affiliated with any network at all.
Tribune Broadcasting Company Blacks Out DISH Customers in 33 Markets;
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Yes and that even strengthens my post and the DISH position on the value.
From anarticle by Geoff Baker in The Seattle Times, Aug. 21,2016
“I think this is something that could go on for a while,’’ said Gary Weitman, senior vice-president (corporate relations) for Chicago-based Tribune Media, which owns Q-13 and 41 other stations nationwide. “I’m not real optimistic that we’ll be able to reach a deal before the start of the NFL season.’’
At its quarterly earnings call with analysts this month, Tribune CEO Peter Liguori said the impact of the Dish dispute has been “negligible” and that strong ratings, advertising growth and increased revenues for WGNA had bolstered the company. Coupled with an expanded network of stations nationwide, Tribune feels a carriage fee hike is justified.
“The last deal that Dish did with us was in June 2013,” Tribune vice-president Weitman says. “We were a very different company then than the one we are today.”
But like all cable and satellite providers, Colorado-based Dish is hearing that many of its 13.8 million customers won’t accept further hikes to monthly bills. The company lost a record 281,000 subscribers in the second quarter of this year — and not strictly because of the Tribune dispute.
If Dish pays Tribune more, higher bills will inevitably get passed on to viewers already threatening to “cut the cord” and switch to streaming options such as Hulu and Netflix.
“They’ve more than doubled their rates, which isn’t real business,’’ Dish executive vice-president (programming) Warren Schlichting told me. “I don’t know another business in the country that can ask for a 100-percent increase. And they’re forcing us to take WGNA, a cable network we’d rather not take. That adds to the pile of money that we have to push over to them.’’
Schlichting says Dish has already spent $7 million giving away over-the-air antennas in numbers “well into the six figures” so NFL fans and others can view Tribune stations for free. Weitman says Tribune is encouraging Seahawks fans worried about future games to switch to a new provider, like DirecTV, which has offered some Dish customers here enticements like free NFL Sunday Ticket packages if they move.
The war of words between the sides has grown nasty as antsy football fans up the pressure.
Dish issued a news release last Thursday accusing Tribune of abandoning negotiations the past five weeks. Tribune issued its own release vehemently denying it.
Weitman told me Dish is the only major provider nationally Tribune has yet to strike a deal with. Schlichting countered that Dish recently reached deals with far bigger programming companies than Tribune.
Tribune notes Dish employed similar “blackouts” during disputes with Time Warner in 2014 and 21st Century Fox last year, accusing the provider of holding viewers hostage as a negotiating tactic. Dish counters that if it keeps Tribune stations on-air, it loses all negotiating leverage.
And on it goes.
There’s a price for our new TV universe; a downside to “cord cutting” boasts by mainly “Millennials” and even younger viewers now streaming all shows.
Sure, they pay less than cable and satellite viewers, but everybody else is subsidizing it.
Viewers switching from TV screens to streaming via smartphones and laptops have made advertising revenue less dependable. The big money from owning a network — be it Tribune or the Mariners-owned ROOT Sports NW — is now via these carriage deals.
Meaning negotiating stakes are higher. And every negotiation risks devolving into what one local TV sports executive recently described to me as “a knife fight.’’
Dish executive Schlichting agrees with that take.
“It’s only going to get worse,’’ he says.
For Seahawks fans, the worsening will come in September once these missed games start to count for something.
Geoff Baker is a sports enterprise and investigative reporter who writes a column on sports business. Baker:gbaker@seattletimes.comor 206-464-8286.
“I think this is something that could go on for a while,’’ said Gary Weitman, senior vice-president (corporate relations) for Chicago-based Tribune Media, which owns Q-13 and 41 other stations nationwide. “I’m not real optimistic that we’ll be able to reach a deal before the start of the NFL season.’’
At its quarterly earnings call with analysts this month, Tribune CEO Peter Liguori said the impact of the Dish dispute has been “negligible” and that strong ratings, advertising growth and increased revenues for WGNA had bolstered the company. Coupled with an expanded network of stations nationwide, Tribune feels a carriage fee hike is justified.
“The last deal that Dish did with us was in June 2013,” Tribune vice-president Weitman says. “We were a very different company then than the one we are today.”
But like all cable and satellite providers, Colorado-based Dish is hearing that many of its 13.8 million customers won’t accept further hikes to monthly bills. The company lost a record 281,000 subscribers in the second quarter of this year — and not strictly because of the Tribune dispute.
If Dish pays Tribune more, higher bills will inevitably get passed on to viewers already threatening to “cut the cord” and switch to streaming options such as Hulu and Netflix.
“They’ve more than doubled their rates, which isn’t real business,’’ Dish executive vice-president (programming) Warren Schlichting told me. “I don’t know another business in the country that can ask for a 100-percent increase. And they’re forcing us to take WGNA, a cable network we’d rather not take. That adds to the pile of money that we have to push over to them.’’
Schlichting says Dish has already spent $7 million giving away over-the-air antennas in numbers “well into the six figures” so NFL fans and others can view Tribune stations for free. Weitman says Tribune is encouraging Seahawks fans worried about future games to switch to a new provider, like DirecTV, which has offered some Dish customers here enticements like free NFL Sunday Ticket packages if they move.
The war of words between the sides has grown nasty as antsy football fans up the pressure.
Dish issued a news release last Thursday accusing Tribune of abandoning negotiations the past five weeks. Tribune issued its own release vehemently denying it.
Weitman told me Dish is the only major provider nationally Tribune has yet to strike a deal with. Schlichting countered that Dish recently reached deals with far bigger programming companies than Tribune.
Tribune notes Dish employed similar “blackouts” during disputes with Time Warner in 2014 and 21st Century Fox last year, accusing the provider of holding viewers hostage as a negotiating tactic. Dish counters that if it keeps Tribune stations on-air, it loses all negotiating leverage.
And on it goes.
There’s a price for our new TV universe; a downside to “cord cutting” boasts by mainly “Millennials” and even younger viewers now streaming all shows.
Sure, they pay less than cable and satellite viewers, but everybody else is subsidizing it.
Viewers switching from TV screens to streaming via smartphones and laptops have made advertising revenue less dependable. The big money from owning a network — be it Tribune or the Mariners-owned ROOT Sports NW — is now via these carriage deals.
Meaning negotiating stakes are higher. And every negotiation risks devolving into what one local TV sports executive recently described to me as “a knife fight.’’
Dish executive Schlichting agrees with that take.
“It’s only going to get worse,’’ he says.
For Seahawks fans, the worsening will come in September once these missed games start to count for something.
Geoff Baker is a sports enterprise and investigative reporter who writes a column on sports business. Baker:gbaker@seattletimes.comor 206-464-8286.
These are just the kinds of things that must happen to start changing the landscape for the better. There will be pain in the upcoming years.
I was sating that before "cord cutter" was a common term. There will be short term savings, but when the dust settles, the cost difference between cord cutters and traditional will be negligible. In general more options will bring prices lower across the board, which is a good thing, but if the locals aren't careful they will negotiate themselves out of business.
Based on a July 14,quote from Tom Wheeler FCC Chairman, “In the recent – and ongoing -- dispute between DISH Network and Tribune Media, when the parties failed to reach an agreement or to extend their prior deal pending further negotiations, consumers began to suffer what is becoming an extensive blackout. I summoned both parties to Washington to negotiate in coordination with Commission staff. When that step failed to produce an agreement or an extension, the Media Bureau issued comprehensive information requests to both parties to enable FCC staff to determine whether they were meeting their duty to negotiate in good faith; we are reviewing their responses as I write. If that review reveals a dereliction of duty on the part of one or both parties, I will not hesitate to recommend appropriate Commission action.”
...So perhaps they can?
In all your examples you have a choice. With the current system you don’t. And the consumer not the provider would pick the affiliates. So you could get your local news from yours choice. As for me, I get more information on the happening in my town from my free local paper then I do from any local TV stations.
This requires action on my part - and since I've already got my alternate means to see the Seahawks...
If you value your job, pal, you better be at the table getting this settled. The NFL is nothing to take for granted especially when about half of your stations have games every weekend twixt now and "The Big Game" - and you don't dare mess with THAT.
One more thing: quit buddying up to DIRECTV. You sort of run television stations, you know darn well we the viewers have our options and we don't have unlimited money. Promote antenna reception FIRST. Besides, promoting DIRECTV to a dish customer with off-air antenna reception on your stations is completely pointless. They've already taken their action, and you won't be getting any cash from them anytime soon. Maybe never again.
(Going Olbermann here) Idiot.
If you value your job, pal, you better be at the table getting this settled. The NFL is nothing to take for granted especially when about half of your stations have games every weekend twixt now and "The Big Game" - and you don't dare mess with THAT.
One more thing: quit buddying up to DIRECTV. You sort of run television stations, you know darn well we the viewers have our options and we don't have unlimited money. Promote antenna reception FIRST. Besides, promoting DIRECTV to a dish customer with off-air antenna reception on your stations is completely pointless. They've already taken their action, and you won't be getting any cash from them anytime soon. Maybe never again.
(Going Olbermann here) Idiot.
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When delivered you do not have a choice in my examples that was the whole point. You want to watch a local channel somewhere else you can, you can drive there, move there same choice you have with my examples. Also did you read my post where I said there could be a payment system where you pay for an affiliate not in market to compensate for the local not getting ad revenue? That would be a complicated system but you can bet you will not have a choice without paying quite alot for it... What you want won't happen because the cost to provide that would never be worth it to the provider for the very few who would use it. Remember that would not be an additional affiliate it would replace your local and by far, people would not be interested to pay what that would cost to lose their local to get an out of Market one.
On top of that the provider would have to deal with blackouts for sports etc, and you would not have a choice to get an affiliate in an earlier time zone.
I believe if what you want was ever implemented the cost to everyone would just be more.
If news is all you want then online is for you with all the many affiliates having their newscasts there. In fact there are even apps that gather them all for you. And in addition to all that, neither Satellite company is going to stop using spotbeams for locals, nor is Cable going to add our of market channels to an already nearly full spectrum use. Even getting a set of distants the provider chooses is sailing into the sunset.
They have to have cause to take real action. The parties simply disagreeing on price is not sufficient. They can make life difficult in general for both parties though, so do have some sway.
The recent Sinclair situation resulted in Sinclair getting their hand slapped and paying fines, but they were trying to roll stations they did not own into the negotiations, which is clearly forbidden under the regs.
My opinion is holding locals hostage to a pay station should be bad faith, it seems they are allowed to do it. We're not even sure WGNA is the primary issue, base pricing is also a sticking point too. All we know is spin and propaganda from both sides.
Pricing for locals is always a problem but I disagree about the national WGN, DISH has made it clear it is a big part of the problem both what they want to charge for it and that they are bundling it. I believe if not for that just like all other locals disputes it would have been resolved long before now.
Anyone who thinks it wasn't Tribune who pulled the stations is fooling themselves. DISH has stated many times they wanted them to stay and would pay the new negotiated price for that time period. It benefits DISH much more than it does Tribune to have them stay so I believe DISH. And it is DISH who has repeatedly asked for binding arbitration. I don't blame Tribune for pulling them, they are allowed to and it is a negotiating tool. It's the process that is allowed that needs to change.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/currency/tribune-stations-dish-retrans-dispute/157235
1000 likes for this post. This sums up the Tribune Dish situation entirely.
I have talked with a rep from KCPQ. They don't like being off Dish anymore than we viewers in the Seattle DMA do. Problem is, they don't have any say in the matter. They're being held hostage by Tribune, essentially, the rep (Tami Robinson) told me. She gave me the email address of Tribune's rep that's dealing with Dish (Gary Weitman) and suggested I email him directly. If someone (or someones) want the email in order to complain to Gary (in a polite manner, please), PM me and I will provide it to you...
Do you have a reading comprehension problem? I didn't say a 2.4x price increase was not significant. I said it MIGHT not be depending on actual facts, like:
1) How much was the old rate. If Tribune was only getting .10/subscriber and now they want .25, I don't consider that significant. I'm not too worried about spending an extra .15/month. However, if they were getting .50/subscriber and are now asking for $1.25, now you're starting to talk "significant".
2) Is the 2.4x increase in the first year? After the third year?
I'm sorry you have a problem with someone asking for facts instead of spin.
Sam Gordon in the "No Spin Zone" ...
I do think it is a little bit of rhetoric when the term 2.5 times increase is used. On the other hand DISH isn't going to use actual numbers no more than any provider protecting their information from competitors so that's how they characterize it. There is a big difference as you say between 10 cents and 50 cents being more than doubled but we are far from 10 cents and much more likely at least at 75¢ and up as a starting point. Thus it isn't just DISH is moving from $6 for locals to $10
Dish isn't going to use actual numbers any more than the locals will use actual numbers. The locals usually say "for just pennies a day". Doesn't sound like a lot, but that's at least .60/month. IMO, people need to get over the "they're giving the signal away for free" and accept if you (general) decide you need/want pay TV, you need to pay for it. If the cost is too much, don't get it. Again, just my opinion.Sam Gordon in the "No Spin Zone" ...
I do think it is a little bit of rhetoric when the term 2.5 times increase is used. On the other hand DISH isn't going to use actual numbers no more than any provider protecting their information from competitors so that's how they characterize it. There is a big difference as you say between 10 cents and 50 cents being more than doubled but we are far from 10 cents and much more likely at least at 75¢ and up as a starting point. Thus it isn't just DISH is moving from $6 for locals to $10
I'd like to do that by channel, but we are getting a little bit closer. Pay up or don't play is too much like throwing the baby out with the bath water.
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