Football fans in parts of Oregon might have to do without games airing on two local broadcast stations this year if they subscribe to Dish Network’s satellite service.
Since July, Dish subscribers in the Bend television market have been without access to local CBS affiliate KBNZ (Channel 7) and ABC affiliate KOHD (Channel 17) after the satellite provider’s contract to carry the channels expired without a new agreement in place.
These programming blackouts typically happen when a broadcaster or programmer demands more money from distributors like cable and satellite TV platforms in exchange for the legal right to redistribute channels to subscribers.
In a statement posted online last month, the parent company of the two affected stations did not dispute they were seeking more money for KBNZ and KOHD, affirming their negotiations centered around terms that “would allow us to cover our costs.”
Those costs may involve so-called “reverse compensation” fees that independent broadcasters of network programming must pay to the parent companies of ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC for their sports, news, daytime and prime-time shows.
Those fees have increased over the past decades as network invest more in lucrative sports rights, including professional football, baseball and basketball. Those costs are passed down to the owners of network affiliates, which pass on those costs to cable and satellite companies.
Dish has been aggressive in negotiations over certain channels, opting to drop them from their satellite TV platform if the company feels doing so would be in the best interest of its subscribers. Historically, Dish has opted to not renew carriage agreements for regional sports networks, though it has also taken a hard stance against increased fee demands by broadcasters, too.
That appears to be the case here, too, with Dish quietly dropping the channels after its contract to carry them lapsed over the summer.
In a statement on a webpage for Dish customers, the company says it was “not able to come to a mutual renewal agreement with Zolo Broadcasting, and without a contract in place we are required to remove their channels from our service.”
Zolo Broadcasting is the former name for the owners of the two channels. Their current owner, Bend Broadband, also operates the local cable TV service in the community, where both channels are still available.
“In our case, Zolo Broadcasting is asking Dish to pay significantly more for the same programming you enjoy today,” the statement continued. “We feel strongly about fighting for a fair rate to ensure you get the best possible value from Dish. Our goal and priority is to reach a fair agreement to bring their local channel back as quickly as possible.”
Despite the pledge, the channels are still unavailable to Dish customers, meaning football fans won’t be able to watch games played by the Seattle Seahawks or the San Francisco 49ers if they are airing on ABC or CBS until the situation is resolved.
That said, both channels remain available on other services, including DirecTV (but not DirecTV Stream due to its own carriage dispute with ABC owner Disney, which has impacted independently-owned network affiliates, too; only KBNZ is on that service as of this writing), Fubo, YouTube TV and Hulu with Live TV.
