CBS and Dish Network reach deal; programming blackout ends
CBS programming has been restored to Dish Network's satellite TV systems after the two companies agreed to a new carriage agreement.
After marathon negotiations that went throughout the night, the two television giants reached a deal early Saturday. The weekend accord ended a 12-hour blackout of CBS-owned stations for millions of Dish customers around the country.
Dish subscribers in Los Angeles now should be able to find KCBS-TV Channel 2 and KCAL-TV Channel 9 in their programming lineups.
Los Angeles is Dish's largest market with nearly 500,000 subscribers.
In the end, the two companies decided to play "Let's Make A Deal."
Financial details of the new arrangement were not disclosed, but CBS said it came away with fee increases that it had been looking for. CBS also won concessions from Dish about the deployment of Dish's controversial AutoHop ad-skipping digital recorder.
Dish agreed to disable the Hopper recording function for CBS prime-time shows for seven days after their initial airing on TV. The agreement covers prime-time programming that runs on CBS-owned television stations.
For its part, Dish secured new digital rights for much of CBS programming -- including video-on-demand content for the premium channel Showtime.
“We are pleased to continue delivering CBS programming to our customers, while expanding their digital access to Showtime content," said Dish's senior vice president for programming, Warren Schlichting.
CBS' president of television networks distribution, Ray Hopkins, added: “We are very pleased with this deal, which meets all of our economic and strategic objectives. We look forward to having Dish as a valued partner for many years to come.”
The two companies have been haggling nearly around-the-clock since earlier in the week when CBS said it would not grant any further contract extensions for a pact that expired on Nov. 20.
The two sides had been making progress at the bargaining table, but then talks broke down late Friday. CBS wanted to hold Dish's feet to the fire, and demanded that Dish remove the signals of CBS's 26 television stations at 4 p.m. PST on Friday.
With a new agreement in place, Dish now is authorized to retransmit signals of the CBS-owned television stations to its customers in 14 markets, including Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco, Denver, Dallas, Chicago and New York.
Dish, which is headquartered in suburban Denver, was under considerable pressure to end the blackout quickly. Disappointed customers have been flooding the company with complaints.
"The people who get hurt the most are always the subscribers," Bobby Campbell, a longtime Dish subscriber who lives in Mound, Minn., told The Times.
Dish didn't want to go long without the programming of CBS, the nation’s No. 1 television network. CBS boasts such popular shows as “The Big Bang Theory” and "NCIS," as well as NFL games.
This weekend, for example, CBS is scheduled to broadcast games featuring the Denver Broncos, Miami Dolphins, Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals.
And CBS, for its part, was determined to come away with a hefty increase in retransmission fees it charges Dish to carry the signals of CBS-owned stations.
TV companies have been grappling with changes in audience behavior, and CBS has aggressive goals to boost those retransmission fees in the next several years. The New York company wants to diversify its revenue so it is less reliant on advertising.
However, the complexity of the agreement -- CBS's proposed fee increase, digital rights and complications over Dish's controversial ad-skipping Hopper device -- made reaching a deal a difficult proposition for both companies.
As a result of the accord, CBS and Dish agreed to dismiss all pending lawsuits between the two companies, including a 2012 dispute over Dish's AutoHop ad-skipping feature.
Twitter: @MegJamesLAT
Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
Update: 6:18 a.m.This story was updated to include more details about agreements between the two companies.
This story was first published at 6:01 a.m. |
