Dissed by Dish

Mission Broadcasting claims that the Dish Network threw them off the satellite service with almost no warning.

Dish subscribers in 18 markets were left in the dark when Dish unilaterally dropped Mission Broadcasting’s local television stations from its programming line-up without warning on Friday night, the company claims.

Mission and Dish had been negotiating a renewal of the carriage agreement between the two companies. Mission claims they had offered to extend the current agreement while negotiations continued, which Dish flatly refused to do.

“Dish gave us no warning when it removed our stations,” said Dennis Thatcher, Mission Broadcasting’s President. “We offered an extension, and Dish refused, even though the NFL Playoffs began on Saturday. This has been, sadly, typical behavior for Dish—the company has constantly put its subscribers in the middle, denying them programming they’ve already paid for rather than taking the path to negotiate in good faith.”

Eventually, the two sides will come to an agreement, of which the details will not be made public and then Dish customers will see their bill rise.

The rich get richer.

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