Fox Pulls Channels from Dish Network

maxdemo · Oct 6, 2010

After the deadline to extend Dish Network’s contract with Fox passed without the two sides reaching an agreement, the programmer pulled several of its channels from the cable provider, including FX, National Geographic, and 19 regional sports network.
Dish Network claims that Fox's increase on rates was outrageous, and that the company wouldn't overcharge its subscribers to pay for Fox's demands.
"Dish Network is not going to allow Fox or any programmer to bully our customers into paying such an unconscionable price increase," said Dave Shul, senior vice president of programming for Dish.
On their part, Fox alleges that the deal it proposed to Dish was fair and that, with its actions, the cable provider “asserted its subscribers do not value our channels and has made a decision to go forward without them."
To this moment Fox News, Fox Business, and other local stations are not affected because those channels are under another contract, which expires on November 1. However, given the current circumstances, the channels might have the same fate.

HacheMan · Oct 6, 2010

I've been hearing this every day on AM Sports radio Ad warning people about it, but I thought they said even more different channels were going to be lost.

Dish seems to be fading fast.....

CarolinaKid · Oct 6, 2010

not sure wht anyone would want dish it not in the same league as directv

maxdemo · Oct 7, 2010

http://www.tvpredictions.com/sons100510.htm

Sons of Anarchy Exec: Dump Dish!
By Swanni

Washington, D.C. (October 5, 2010) -- Kurt Sutter, executive producer of FX's Sons of Anarchy, has joined his network's fight against Dish Network by calling on viewers to dump the satellite TV service.

Dish Network last week was forced to drop the Fox-owned FX, National Geographic Channel and 19 Fox regional sports networks after it couldn't reach a new programming agreement with Fox.

Dish says Fox is asking for an "unconscionable" price increase to carry the channels. If it agreed to it, Dish says, it would be forced to raise its subscriber costs. (Fox says Dish's claim is untrue.)

However, on his Twitter page, Sutter calls Echostar (Dish's sister company and the former name for Dish's TV service) "whores" and says people should "dump Dish," according to a report in Variety.

The producer tells Dish subscribers that "you're already paying more for FX than every other cable/satellite company in the world." In another tweet, Sutter concludes that Dish viewers shouldn't let (Dish) "f--- you out of your Sons. "

PokerKingJim · Oct 7, 2010

I'm more inclined to side with the dish/cable providers in these battles. Should the cable companies have to pay whatever the networks demand? This price is obviously passed on to the customer. The networks know that if said company won't pay their price, they will lose customers. It's nearly extortion.

Maybe some day every single channel will be a la carte where you only pay for the channels you want. I would only need about 15 or so.

JakeT. · Oct 7, 2010

Poker King Jim said:
I'm more inclined to side with the dish/cable providers in these battles. Should the cable companies have to pay whatever the networks demand? This price is obviously passed on to the customer. The networks know that if said company won't pay their price, they will lose customers. It's nearly extortion.

Maybe some day every single channel will be a la carte where you only pay for the channels you want. I would only need about 15 or so.

That would be awesome.

ABC
NBC
CBS
FOX
ESPN
ESPN2
ESPN (any others that play live football)
History
Discovery
Versus
Spike
Cartoon Network
Comedy Central
HD Net

That should about wrap it up for me.

JakeT. · Oct 7, 2010

Poker King Jim said:
I'm more inclined to side with the dish/cable providers in these battles. Should the cable companies have to pay whatever the networks demand? This price is obviously passed on to the customer. The networks know that if said company won't pay their price, they will lose customers. It's nearly extortion.

Maybe some day every single channel will be a la carte where you only pay for the channels you want. I would only need about 15 or so.

That would be awesome.

ABC
NBC
CBS
FOX
ESPN
ESPN2
ESPN (any others that play live football)
History
Discovery
Versus
Spike
Cartoon Network
Comedy Central
HD Net

That should about wrap it up for me.

maxdemo · Oct 12, 2010

Dish vs. Fox: Who's Losing?
By Swanni

Washington, D.C. (October 12, 2010) -- The fee fight between Dish Network and Fox Networks is now in its 12th day with no end in sight. Both companies have escalated the rhetoric in recent days, blaming the other for Dish subscribers being denied access to the Fox-owned FX, National Geographic Channel and 19 regional sports channels.

At this point, there would appear to be no winners or losers in the battle over whether Dish should provide additional compensation to Fox to carry the channels. (Their old fee agreement expired on September 30.) The one exception, of course: the Dish viewers who can't watch some of their favorite channels; they are clear losers.

However, another loser is rapidly emerging from the fog of loud charges and hysterical ad campaigns. And that loser is Dish Network.

The satcaster may be justified in saying that Fox is asking for an "excessive" fee to carry the FX, etc. It may even be right to suggest that Fox is trying to scare Dish viewers with the threat that they will lose their local Fox channels on November 1 if a new agreement is not reached for those channels as well.

But Dish is in a precarious position in the fight. The company has a long history of getting entangled in nasty legal scraps with industry partners, be it TiVo (six-year DVR patent war continues); Disney (Dish recently removed four Disney HD channels after the two sides could not reach a new programming pact; the channels are still off the air.); MSG (another programming fight has forced Dish to remove the sports channel from its lineup); Voom (Dish dumped Voom's HD channels from the air although it was a minority stake holder; a lawsuit ensued).

And I could cite perhaps a couple dozen more cases over the last decade.

You see, Dish CEO Charlie Ergen believes in playing hardball at the negotiating table. It often appears that Dish doesn't mind denying its customers a favorite channel for awhile if it means a few more dollars in its coffers.

But I have to think that many Dish subscribers are losing patience with this approach. How do you subscribe to a TV service that doesn't give you confidence that your favorite channels will be there when you tune them in. (Or, in the case of TiVo, it's possible a judge will rule that Dish must disable its DVRs at some point.)

The longer the battle with Fox, the more likely that Dish subscribers will bolt and sign up with a different TV provider, such as DIRECTV. And if Dish doesn't sign an agreement to keep the Fox affiliates, it could be a disaster. Again, Dish viewers can only take so much.

This is a case where Ergen needs to put his ego and even his principles on the shelf and make a deal with Fox. He doesn't have the luxury not to.

Grindstoner · Oct 12, 2010

Recently Dish has been doing a massive ad campaign trying to get new customers. The only angle they were going for to attract customers was their cheaper price. If they can't compete on the price angle then they can't compete at all. It's too bad really, nothing like have just two subscribers to choose from. Comcast must really be enjoying this...now they can raise their future rates even more.

Hookandcrook+ · Oct 12, 2010

Poker King Jim said:
I'm more inclined to side with the dish/cable providers in these battles. Should the cable companies have to pay whatever the networks demand? This price is obviously passed on to the customer. The networks know that if said company won't pay their price, they will lose customers. It's nearly extortion.

Maybe some day every single channel will be a la carte where you only pay for the channels you want. I would only need about 15 or so.

I agree 100%. Bright House held out a couple years ago so I don't have the NFL network (Thursday night game). It sucks I have to go to a bar to watch it but if you start caving to whatever they ask every channel will get in line and we will pay in the end.