Dish Network on Sunday ended a months-long dispute with Apollo Group Management, the owner of around 10 Cox Media stations that have been unavailable on the satellite TV service since July.
“We are pleased to have reached an agreement with DISH that allows our loyal viewers to continue watching our quality local and network programming,” Cox Media said in a statement posted on several local TV station websites Sunday afternoon.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The deal ends a months-long blackout that saw TV viewers in more than a half-dozen markets lose access to one or more channels on their lineup. The affected stations include:
- WSB-TV (Channel 2) in Atlanta
- WFXT (Channel 25) in Boston
- WSOC (Channel 9) and WAXN (Channel 64) in Charlotte, North Carolina
- WHIO (Channel 7) in Dayton, Ohio
- WFOX-TV (Channel 30/32) in Jacksonville, Florida
- WHBQ (Channel 13) in Memphis
- WFTV (Channel 9) and WRDQ (Channel 27) in Orlando
- WPXI (Channel 11) in Pittsburg
- KIRO (Channel 7) in Seattle
- KOKI (Channel 23) and KMYT (Channel 41) in Tulsa
Once rare, carriage disputes between programmers like Cox and distributors like Dish Network are becoming more common as programmers demand more money for their channels and distributors try to ease the trend of rising cable and satellite subscription fees.
Dish Network continues to be engaged in a carriage dispute with another local TV station owner, Nexstar Media Group, which has forced the blackout of around 160 local stations in more than 110 regional markets.
