CBS stations pulled from Dish Network in contract dispute

[Eugene]

Source: Los Angeles Times

CBS stations pulled from Dish Network in contract dispute

By MEG JAMES
DECEMBER 5, 2014 4:24 PM

Millions of Dish Network customers lost easy access to CBS programming late Friday after the two media companies failed to agree on a new contract.

Negotiations went down to the wire and continued 24 hours beyond a Thursday deadline set by CBS. Negotiations continued on Friday before the two sides reached an impasse.

"Effective today at 7 p.m. Eastern Time, CBS programming is no longer available to Dish subscribers in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Dallas, Denver, Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh and several other markets," CBS said in a statement. "CBS has been negotiating a carriage agreement with Dish for six months and has already granted two extensions. During this time, Dish has dragged its feet at our many attempts to negotiate in good faith."

Without an agreement in place, Dish was not authorized to retransmit signals of CBS-owned television stations to its customers in 14 markets.

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Read more: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-cbs-blackout-dish-network-contract-dispute-20141204-story.html

[misterhighwasted]

1. Well FFSake!! ggrrrr

No Amazing Race.
Geez we just got the Turner thing resolved.
Damn You CBS!!!

[misterhighwasted]

5. Not to worry they say the CBS Sports Channels are still on. f**kers

Can't watch livestream either because you have to provide your Carrier. Dish is not on the list of approved Carriers.
What a damn circus.

[yeoman6987]

21. I have COMCAST

As bad as it is, they never have this sort of problem. I switched from dish to COMCAST after the dish would go out from time to time in a storm. I would get so frustrated. COMCAST's stuff is underground and has never gone out.

[Dont call me Shirley]

2. Good, I can't stand cbs anyway.

[misterhighwasted]

12. If/when its settled your bill will increase

CBS wants more money for the use of broadband. whether one used that or not.
They will strong arm DISH & we'll pick up the tab.
Because that's what consumers do. Pick up the the tab

[Dont call me Shirley]

15. Greedy propaganda f@#>ers.

[yeoman6987]

22. Wow! That is my 2nd watched network after ABC

So many great shows on CBS. I love the new Stalker. And NCIS, The Good Wife, Madam Secretary, Big Bang Theory and so many others.

[Dont call me Shirley]

23. I really love the Ben Stein commentaries on Sunday Morning

Especially the one where he said people with disabilities are such a drain on society that we ought to just commit hari kari.

[SoCalNative]

3. This makes me glad

to be canceling my Dish subscription soon. Tired of all of these games.

[misterhighwasted]

14. I hear ya. I am done with this too.

Make damn fools out of all of us.

[still_one]

17. That is Charlie Ergen for you. He always plays these games say he is trying to save his customers

money, and though he may have a point that the networks and other providers keep increasing their rates, in the end he accepts their terms. Frankly, it is very simple, let the customer decide if they want to pay the increased cost by separating CBS out from the bundled package. If people decide the extra cost is too much they won't subscribe to the CBS feed, it won't be Charlie telling them it is too much, but the consumer.

Also, it is funny how the satellite providers have no problem loading up their channels with Pay Per View and Home Shopping Network bandwidth, with the PPV usually at a rip of price where you can get the same thing from netflix.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

4. Dish is at war with everyone (including its customers)

A couple months ago, they dropped Turner Classic Movies and CNN. Fortunately, they restored the latter two. I called Dish customer service to demand that I see a lower fee on my next monthly bill because billing at the same rate while they no longer buy some of their most popular programs would be unjust enrichment on the part of their company. Unfortunately, the bill I received a few days ago was higher than it's ever been for me. And now there goes Sunday football. Dish sucks.

[misterhighwasted]

8. Article in LA Times says some programs are not affected. CBS Sports is one of them.BUT

that remains to be seen.
I imagine the higher Dish bill was for settling the Turner dispute. Now it'll be even higher once CBS is restored I suppose.
Its actually CBS that is being a dick about this.
The problem lies with wanting to charge Dish more due to people using broadband.
Someones got to pay those higher fees to CBS. Or go without.

Life in a Corporate Run Government.
So sick of the bullying everywhere you look.

[daredtowork]

11. Dish claims they can bill for the package

Dish claims they can bill for the package, and not maintain the advertised content within the package.

I'm not so sure this is legally true.

I'm on the fence about challenging it, though. I know the problem for Dish is negotiating the "parcel" fees for each and every network and or media-mogul bundle to keep all the packages at the lowest price possible.

One thing that infuriates me is how customers who don't watch sports end up subsidizing the people who do watch sports - those are the higher cost channels.

Anyway, this whole distribution racket is wrong, and it's dying an early death. There are too many middlemen. There are too many blockages and delays for global audiences, leading to piracy. There needs to be a marketplace for a la carte viewing, with shows released globally at the same time, and trusted arena for reviews/promotion to build the audiences/critical mass necessary to fund quality entertainment.

I'm tired of TV packages bloated with Home Shopping Networks and Jesus Loves Me channels. There must be a way to get just the content I want - which is very, very, very little - for a reasonable price. Right now it seems you have to pay a premium to restrict your content and have to go through the added layer of difficulty of purchasing devices and figuring out how to hook them up, etc.

[misterhighwasted]

18. THat is exactly right. They can always find a reason to charge higher fees for anything they want

Certainly true about paying for channels you never will watch. Like the god shows. HSN too.

A la carte viewing would be way to reasonable for the golddiggers who will squeeze every penny from every pocket there is.

[daredtowork]

19. This is similar to the debate over music

Music was pirated because because people were annoyed at being forced to buy increasingly expensive CDs with a lot of fluff they didn't want. $18 CDs!!! The music industry was forced to change their practice even as they tried to prosecute piracy. The changes are still going on.

Similar changes are going to have to happen in the book publishing industry. The Amazon vs. Hachette fight is completely bogus because that's a Big Monopoly vs. a Old Dying Business Model. I have a feeling we're going to see a lot of fights/difficulties within the changing TV structure that look like this as the moguls try to hoover up wherever they can find free money afloat as various ships sink.

EVERYONE needs to figure out how to deliver content directly to a global audience, and how to arrange for a trusted revieiwing/filtering system that will promote critical masses of that global audience to occur. The old middlemen and the old "padding" of packages just has to die.

[misterhighwasted]

6. Dispute is over the Broadband viewers & that crap

[darkangel218]

7. Good, i wont miss them. nt

[misterhighwasted]

9. Well Good for you, but not GOOD because it is going to show up on your DISH bill when it resolved

Wether you like CBS or Not.
And some of us do watch something on CBS.
Glad it wont affect you then. Until you have to pay the higher fee.

[darkangel218]

13. I missed CNN teribly

But I don't watch cbs so I personally don't care.

Dish sucks though

[951-Riverside]

10. A bit here, a torrent there n/t

[Cleita]

16. Those happen every now and then and don't last long.

I don't see much wrong with it. It's was left of the so called free market doing what it's supposed to do be competitive.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

20. CBS? *Shrug*...now that they've put TCM back on.

[longship]

24. Yup! And when I finished two lovely lamb chops on my plate the other night, I dumped the bones.

This is the CBS with Trout, Safire, Murrow, Cronkite, Rather?

Nope! Into the bone bucket with you.

[sharp_stick]

25. I can't believe anyone still deals with Dish

Every few months it's another catastrophe.

They're like the prom queen that doesn't get the spotlight enough on the slow dance.