The Programming Disputes Thread

This thread will list all of the current and upcoming programming disputes between stations/networks and cable/satellite providers.

I'll start with this from a Facebook group:

I've got more BAD NEWS! I've just got word from James Jimmy Cieloha that Sinclair Broadcast Group is threatened to blackout its stations from DISH Network on August 15, 2015! ‪#‎DontShootTheMessenger‬! ‪#‎ReformNow‬ ‪#‎EndTheMadness‬

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James Jimmy Cieloha This applies to Dish subscribers in the Omaha TV DMA with KPTM FOX and KXVO CW including me myself in Duncan, Nebraska in the Columbus, Nebraska area in the Platte County area, and in the Sioux City TV DMA with KPTH FOX and KMEG CBS including Madison and Norfolk in Madison County, Nebraska.

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https://www.facebook.com/groups/677636052355784/832471946872193/?ref=notif&notif_t=group_activity

This will leave the massive Traverse City-Cadillac TV market with only one local station on Dish Network (PBS member WCMU) because the CBS and FOX affiliates have been in a dispute with Dish Network for months now. Sinclair owns the ABC and NBC stations in that market.

Also, Dish Network doesn't carry any of the regional sports networks serving New York and hasn't for years now.

Time Warner and Mediacom are infamous for their carriage disputes with local channels.

KVEW-42 Kennewick and KXLY-4 Spokane are gone from Dish Network, due to a dispute.
If not resolved by tonight, the whole Sinclair group goes off Dish Network as well. This includes KOMO-4 Seattle, KIMA-29 Yakima, KATU-2 Portland, KEPR-19 Pasco and KBOI-2 Boise, as well as many others. Glad I don't have Dish Network, or I would not have ABC OR CBS!
Hopefully they resolve both of these disputes VERY soon. The last really bad dispute around here was Fisher vs Dish in 2009, and my relatives lost KIMA for 6 months. They had to go buy an indoor antenna just to watch CBS.

-crainbebo

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...B-direcTV-uverse-blackout-san-deigo-chargers/

KFMB, the CBS affiliate in San Diego, got pulled by Directv on Thursday.

They better get rid of SyndEx. It applied in 1991. Doesn't now. People would be pi$$ed off still about not having local news from KIMA-29 Yakima, for example, but at least Dish/DirecTV could pipe in KREM-2, KIRO-7 or KOIN-6 for CBS in the event of a programming dispute.

I just checked Dish to see if the Sinclair Mobile (market 69) stations were still on.
Yeah, I guess they were. ABC was showing low budget religious programming. NBC was showing the Larry King infomercial. MyNet was showing an infomercial. And the Indie was showing e/i. Don't get the subchannels on Dish.
Do I really need these stations?

gwise96557 said:

I would suggest an over the air dongle (tuner attachment) I have one on my hopper and an antenna if you can get one, mine gives me about 50 more channels including the locals in Hi def and can record programs this way. In my area one station controls CBS, ABC, FOX, CW, and Telemundo. Direct TV lost them for a while a year or 2 ago. Hopefully the FCC honcho is supposedly getting a proposal to allow importing out of markets network stations to fill in. This may bring a little sanity to it but I have my backup plan and I am not afraid to use it.

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And what happens if you can't get your local channels even with an antenna?

I've never tried with an outdoor one, but I haven't had the best of luck with my indoor ones. No NBC affiliate at all.

vchimpanzee said:

And what happens if you can't get your local channels even with an antenna?

I've never tried with an outdoor one, but I haven't had the best of luck with my indoor ones. No NBC affiliate at all.

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I get only one OTA channel, because I'm in a brick apartment building with all the windows in my unit facing in the opposite direction to all but one of the Hartford/New Haven stations' towers. An indoor antenna picks up the ABC affiliate and its subchannels, and nothing else.

Dish & Sinclair reached a temporary deal - no outage. Dish is also alerting the FCC.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/dish-network-files-fcc-complaint-regarding-sinclair-broadcast-1439638773

However, Dish continues to block KVEW-42 and KXLY-4.

-crainbebo

landtuna said:

First, try a good outdoor antenna with rotor if necessary.

Second, if TV is that important to you and you don't want cable, pack up and move to an area with better reception.

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I've moved enough in my life and I'm not moving again. Time Warner has not blocked me from any channels and there was only one significant outage. I don't recall what shows I watched, but an antenna was enough that one time.

What are you going to tell all the people living out in the country who can't get cable?

Dish to Lose WBRZ If No Deal by Friday

The carriage agreement between Dish Network and Manship Family-owned ABC affiliate WBRZ Baton Rouge, La. (DMA 93), expired on June 30. WBRZ’s General Manager Rocky Davobal said in a statement today that “Dish has refused to enter into a [new] carriage agreement on terms consistent with those of other pay TV companies which have recently entered into agreements with our station.”

Daboval expressed hope the current impasse will be resolved and Dish’s subscribers will not lose access to WBRZ on Aug. 21, when the current contract extension expires, but he cautioned that Dish subscribers may wish to make plans for receiving the station off the air for free, or switch to a local cable company or DirecTV.

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http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/87792/dish-to-lose-wbrz-if-no-deal-by-friday

DIRECTV Loses NBC Station In Utah

DIRECTV last night lost the NBC station in Salt Lake City due to a fee fight with its owner, Bonneville International.

The station, KSL-TV, posted a notice at its web site this morning saying the satcaster had dropped it from its lineup. Actually, KSL's signal was removed by the station because the carriage agreement between the two companies expired last night. By law, a TV provider can not carry a local station without its permission.

KSL said the companies continue to negotiate for a new agreement. The station said it is seeking "fair market value" from DIRECTV to carry its signal.

An AT&T/DIRECTV spokeswoman told the Deseret News yesterday that KSL is seeking "three times" the amount it received in the previous agreement.

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http://tvpredictions.com/directv082115.htm

landtuna said:

I wasn't being a smart ass but rather realistic. Some people (like me) would not choose to live without the Internet so if and when I ever move again I will insist on high speed access being as necessary as a bathroom and a kitchen. And that is exactly what I would tell rural dwellers (of which I was one outside metro Richmond, VA back in the 70's). Rural living is great.....until you need a thingy at 2PM on a Saturday and the store is 25 miles away and they close by 3. Or, trying (back then) to receive Richmond's very poor OTA TV stations with flat terrain and about 20 miles as the crow flies. They probably still don't have cable but I am sure they can get satellite so that's the price one pays for living out in the sticks. And, of course, people in downtown condos sometimes have exactly the same problem with regard to signal reception OTA. And I imagine everything is now worse with digital.

I made the comment specifically to you because, of all the posters here on the forum, your life seems to revolve around the TV. Just an observation.

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That is true. And I've basically done without TV on weekdays this summer. I really like catching up on newspapers.It's hard but made easier by a new TiVo which isn't filled up yet. Once the new season begins, I have to choose between newspapers and the Internet.

But I wouldn't move again and before digital TV I didn't have problems with reception.

I also didn't have the ability to use TiVo's Season Pass, and I don't think you can do that with an antenna. So there's a reason for wanting the cable or satellite providers not to deprive you.

If you don't know what that is, a TiVo DVR will record an episode of a TV show you had no idea was even going to be on, and at a time of night or weekend you wouldn't have imagined they'd show it after pre-empting the episode at its normal time. Upcoming showings (for a movie) is also great if you're cheap. Actually, Netflix would be cheaper than what I'm doing now. But Netflix doesn't have the sanitized versions. I want all of this and don't want Time Warner having disputes.

We were warned one channel I watch a lot for movies would not be available here. So I'm thinking unless I had an antenna that looks like a cell tower or something, I'd be out of luck.

vchimpanzee said:

I've moved enough in my life and I'm not moving again. Time Warner has not blocked me from any channels and there was only one significant outage. I don't recall what shows I watched, but an antenna was enough that one time.

What are you going to tell all the people living out in the country who can't get cable?

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I'm a city dweller, so correct me if I'm wrong. But given that DirecTV and Dish Network are satellite services, aren't they available to people in rural areas?

I have friends outside Redding CA - not really deep in the country, more semi-rural, but they have never had access to cable. In the 80s, they had the big huge satellite dish, then made the switch to Dish Network some years ago.

City or not, I was sick of Comcast's prices, and switched to DirecTV about two years ago....got a great deal thru Costco. Even though all the "special offers" and "incentives" are expired, I still pay $45 a month less than I was for Comcast in 2013.

vchimpanzee said:

What are you going to tell all the people living out in the country who can't get cable?

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I live in Chicago and lost all my TV when it went digital. I haven't watched TV in over two years now. Don't miss it one bit. And this shocks me because I was a major TV watcher and I used to leave it running in the background through the day.

But it's amazing what you can get along without.

Meanwhile, Dish Network and the owner of two stations in Spokane and Yakima have temporarily set aside their dispute to allow the stations to resume carriage during the fires in that part of Washington State:
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/ne...-tvs-returning-dish-washington-markets/143549

The stations are KXLY-TV/4 Spokane and KVEW/42 Kennewick-Richland-Pasco (a semi-satellite of co-owned KAPP/35 Yakima; KVEW's only non-duplicated programming is their newscasts).

LKellerIII said:

I'm a city dweller, so correct me if I'm wrong. But given that DirecTV and Dish Network are satellite services, aren't they available to people in rural areas?

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This is a thread about disputes involving the cable companies and the satellite services. If one of the satellite services can't solve its problems with one of your local stations and you live out in the country where that station can't be received with an antenna because of terrain or distance, cable is not an option. You could try the other satellite service, but then they might get into a dispute.