If you’re a sports fan that has Dish Network, I have one question for you – why? Dish has been involved in carriage disputes left and right with various national and regional sports networks, and they’ve fired another massive shot at RSNs this week. Dish won’t be carrying *any* Comcast RSNs in the future, according to a statement from Comcast. John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal posted the statement on Twitter, which states that Dish “is not willing to work towards mutually acceptable terms”.
Dish and Comcast have been sparring for years. They never carried CSN Philadelphia (or CSN Northwest). They dropped SNY, which Comcast has a small ownership stake in, years back. Earlier this summer, they kicked CSN New England to the curb. They never carried the now-defunct CSN Houston, and haven’t picked up its successor, Root Sports Southwest.
The affected Comcast RSNs will be CSN Bay Area, CSN California, CSN Chicago, and CSN Mid-Atlantic. Four MLB teams (Giants, A’s, White Sox, Cubs), four NBA teams (Warriors, Kings, Bulls Wizards), and three NHL teams (Sharks, Blackhawks, Capitals) will be affected, along with three MLS teams, one WNBA team, and local college coverage.
Again I ask – if you’re a sports fan and have Dish, why? As far as I can tell, Dish will only be carrying the three Root Sports RSNs that predated Root Sports Southwest and a variety of Fox RSNs throughout the country for now. How long until those contracts come up for renewal and Dish bails on keeping those regional networks on their packages?
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About Joe Lucia
I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.