Another day, another Dish carriage dispute. This year alone, Dish has had disputes with Apollo, NFL Network/NFL RedZone, Cox, and Nexstar. They also have ongoing disputes with the Fox RSNs (now owned by Sinclair), NBC Sports Chicago, Altitude, Sunbeam, Circle City Broadcasting, and HBO. And now, they’re battling it out with Capitol Broadcasting, which owns four stations in North Carolina, including WRAL and WRAZ (NBC and Fox affiliates respectively) in Raleigh. Here’s more on that from Brooke Caine of the (Raleigh) News & Observer:
WRAL and WRAZ FOX 50 have gone dark for DISH Network customers, after an extension in a contract negotiation expired Tuesday afternoon.
WRAL and FOX 50, both owned by Capitol Broadcasting Company, said in a news release that the stations were removed by DISH after “they refused to reach a fair agreement to carry our stations.”
…“WRAL and FOX 50 are not pushing for things that are unreasonable,“ said Jimmy Goodmon, President and COO of Capitol Broadcasting Company. “We are asking to be paid market rate for our programming so we can pay the affiliation fees required by NBC and FOX. This isn’t about greed, it’s about survival for our small, locally owned media company. Now, more than ever, local television news and original programming is a critical service to our community.”
A DISH network website devoted to explaining why disputes happen with networks and station owners says: “Sometimes these channel owners try to force us into unreasonable contract terms — such as extreme rate increases that we cannot agree to. At DISH, we constantly work to bring you programming at a great value.”
We’ll see how this one goes. But it’s certainly an interesting time to take NBC and Fox affiliates off your airwaves, with the last week of the NFL season and then the playoffs coming up. And that may make it tough for Dish customers in Raleigh to watch some important NFL games in the weeks ahead.
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.