Carriage controversies Tribune Broadcasting

1 carriage controversies

1.1 april 2012 directv dispute
1.2 august 2012 cablevision dispute
1.3 june 2016 dish dispute

carriage controversies
april 2012 directv dispute

at midnight et on april 1, 2012, tribune s carriage agreement directv ended, resulting in 23 tribune broadcasting-owned stations , wgn america pulled satellite provider @ midnight in respective time zones of markets carrying broadcast stations. tribune seeking retransmission consent payments directv, under previous carriage agreements, company received carriage of wgn america, not local broadcast stations. on april 3, 2012, directv filed complaint federal communications commission claiming tribune company representatives had negotiated in bad faith , company had inappropriately transferred control on broadcast licenses bankruptcy creditors. dispute lasted 4 days, ending on april 5, 2012, when 2 companies reached new carriage agreement tribune broadcasting stations , wgn america (the stations restored directv subscribers @ 9:00 p.m. et evening); directv s complaint fcc against tribune dropped part of agreement.

august 2012 cablevision dispute

at midnight eastern time on august 16, 2012, tribune s carriage agreement cablevision expired, resulting in new york city s wpix, hartford s wcct-tv , philadelphia s wphl-tv being pulled cablevision systems in new york, new jersey , connecticut. additionally, kwgn-tv pulled optimum west systems in colorado , wyoming (which sold charter communications in 2013). cablevision accused tribune of demanding higher carriage fees (that cablevision claimed totaled in tens of millions of dollars) used pay off debt, , alleged illegally bundled carriage agreements wpix , hartford s wtic-tv (which unaffected, unlike sister station wcct, due separate carriage agreement later pulled cablevision s connecticut systems well), company denied, stating approach complied fcc regulations. stations , wgn america (which dropped due dispute) restored through new carriage agreement reached on october 26, following plea connecticut state senator gayle slossberg fcc intervene in dispute.

june 2016 dish dispute

tribune s carriage agreement dish , tribune-affiliated abc, cbs, cw, fox, & nbc over-the-air stations expired on june 12, 2016.

unable come terms on new distribution agreement, tribune media co. said 42 television stations , wgn america cable channel had gone dark on satellite broadcaster dish network corp. approximately 5 million dish subscribers in 33 markets across 34 states , district of columbia lost access local tv stations owned tribune late sunday. 7 million aren’t receiving wgn america network.

at issue fees tribune seeking carriage of stations , wgn america. in statement, dish network said tribune demanding unreasonable price increase local channels, available free antenna. in addition, increase wgn america isn’t warranted because channel no longer carries chicago cubs games , ratings down in dish homes, satellite broadcaster said.

“tribune using local viewers leverage raise rates wgn america—a channel in decline,” said warren schlichting, executive vice president of programming dish.

dish has offered provide free antennas customers can receive tribune television stations. tribune owns or operates 42 stations in many of nation’s biggest markets including new york, los angeles, chicago , washington, d.c. many of stations affiliated cw network owns affiliates of cbs, abc, nbc , fox.

tribune said deal offered dish same 1 has other pay-tv distributors. ”dish refuses reach agreement based on fair-market value,” said tribune media spokesman gary weitman.

both companies said willing extend current agreement neither side agree on terms that.

such fights on distribution fees have become commonplace in television industry. tribune has been seeking increases wgn america part of plan transition channel 1 highly dependent on reruns , chicago sports network lots of original programming can compete channels such fx , amc.

on september 3, tribune , dish came long term agreement ending 3 month long dispute.