DISH Network : 21st Century Fox Blacks Out Fox News and Business for DISH
12/21/2014 | 12:06am US/Eastern
DISH offers contract extension to continue negotiations, Fox rejects
Fox demands unreasonable rates and carriage of other channels
Tonight, 21st Century Fox, Inc. (NASDAQ: FOXA, FOX) blocked DISH customer access to Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, as the media conglomerate introduced other channels into negotiations despite those channels not being included in the contract up for renewal.
DISH Network L.L.C. is a wholly owned subsidiary of DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH).
“It’s like we’re about to close on a house and the realtor is trying to make us buy a new car as well,” said Warren Schlichting, DISH senior vice president of programming. “Fox blacked out two of its news channels, using them as leverage to triple rates on sports and entertainment channels that are not in this contract.”
This service disruption comes despite DISH’s offer of a short-term contract extension that would preserve the channels as the two parties continue to negotiate.
“DISH has had a productive relationship with Fox for many years,” added Schlichting. “We regret the service disruption to our customers, and remain committed to reaching an agreement that promptly returns this content to DISH’s programming lineup.”
I have Dish and it blows chumks. Wish I had never switched from Directv. Dish has outages all the time with various channels. They really stink.