Gray Media has pulled more than 200 of its owned or operated local television stations from Dish Network after a distribution contract that allowed the satellite provider to carry those channels expired without a new agreement in place.
In a statement to customers late Tuesday evening, Dish Network said it was forced to pull the stations because it lacked a current “retransmission consent” agreement to carry them.
While all of Gray Media’s local TV stations are available to viewers for free through the use of a conventional TV antenna, pay TV providers like satellite TV companies must pay Gray Media and other broadcasters for the privilege of reselling access to their channels.
The largest markets affected by the dispute between Gray Media and Dish Network are Atlanta, Sarasota (Tampa), Phoenix and Cleveland, where Gray owns or operates one or more stations. In Atlanta, WPCH (Channel 17, CW Network) and WANF (Channel 46) are unavailable to Dish Network subscribers, while in Phoenix, Dish Network customers have lost access to CBS affiliate KPHO (Channel 5) and independent station KTVK (Channel 3).
Across the country, Gray Media owns or operates 54 NBC affiliates, 53 CBS affiliates, 49 CW Network affiliates, 28 Fox affiliates and 26 ABC affiliates, according to marketing materials reviewed by The Desk. Gray Media also operates a handful of stations owned by SagamoreHill Broadcasting through local marketing and shared services agreements.
“It is deeply disappointing that Gray Media is using its viewers as bargaining chips,” Kevin Covell, Senior Vice President of Dish Video Services, said in a statement Tuesday evening. “We offered a fair agreement to keep these stations on the air, but Gray Media walked away. Gray Media chose to black out their own viewers, rather than reasonably negotiate, in an attempt to extract significantly higher fees.”
Gray Media has not commented about the dispute as of Tuesday evening. At the end of 2025, Dish Network counted more than 5 million satellite TV subscribers.
Programming-related disputes have increased over the past decade as broadcasters like Gray Media seek higher fees from pay TV distributors like Dish Network. Those fees are passed on to customers in their bills, and are the leading cause of rising subscription prices among traditional pay TV providers.
Rather than acquiesce to those fee demands, distributors like Dish Network have opted to drop local stations for weeks or months at a time. Dish has engaged in similar disputes with Fox Corporation, ABC owner Disney, former CBS owner Viacom, TEGNA, Mission Broadcasting and White Knight Broadcasting, among others.
The precise fee that broadcasters seek for carriage of their channels is never revealed. During disputes, broadcasters say their fee demands are justified by the high-quality local news and national sports programming their channels carry. Most local TV broadcasters have to pay significant fees to the owners of the four main networks — ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC — for the privilege of carrying their national entertainment and sports programming, with those fees increasing over the past few years.
The dispute between Dish and Gray Media comes at a time when the local TV industry has lobbied broadcast regulators for permission to consolidate their operations, something that requires a reworking or elimination of current federal ownership rules. Local broadcasters say consolidation is needed to better compete against large-scale streaming services, but critics say allowing local TV station owners to buy competing station groups will lead to a concentration of power that will cause more disputes like the one Dish and Gray Media are locked in.
Alternatives to Dish Network
Customers of Dish Network who have lost access to one or more Gray Media-owned station have a number of alternative ways to watch their local station.
In all areas where Gray Media owns or operates a local station, installing a conventional TV antenna is the cheapest way to watch broadcast programming, including national entertainment, news and sports from ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and CW Network affiliates. The Mohu Leaf 50 antenna ($40 on Amazon) is one of the best and most-reliable ways to receive close and distant local TV stations from the major network affiliates, with some TV viewers able to pull in between 50 and 100 clear, digital broadcast TV signals. Amazon also has cheaper TV antennas — some going for as little as $11 — that are good alternatives for TV viewers who live in major cities or who are close to their local TV transmission towers.
Dish Network customers who want access to national programming from CBS can sign up for Paramount Plus Essentials, which costs $9 per month and includes on-demand access to entertainment and news from CBS, plus access to shows from Comedy Central, VH1, MTV and Nickelodeon, among others. Another plan, called Paramount Plus Premium, costs $14 per month and includes live access to a local CBS station or affiliate, including those owned by Gray Media. Paramount Plus Premium also offers ad-free streaming of on-demand CBS shows, and includes movies and series from Showtime.
Dish Network customers who have lost access to NBC programming can sign up for Peacock Select, which costs $8 per month and includes on-demand, ad-supported acecss to NBC’s entertainment and news programming. Another plan, called Peacock Premium, costs $11 per month and includes live NBC Sports programming, including NBA basketball and MLB baseball games. Peacock Premium Plus costs $17 per month and includes live access to a viewer’s local NBC station or affiliate, including those owned by Gray Media.
Dish Network customers who want access to Fox programming can sign up for Fox One through Amazon’s Prime Video Channels. For $20 per month, Fox One includes access to all live programming from a local Fox station or affiliate, including local news, plus 24-hour streaming access to Fox Sports, Fox News and Fox Business Network. A version of Fox One that includes access to ESPN’s cable networks costs $40 per month.
For ABC programming, Dish Network customers can sign up for Hulu and watch ABC’s entertainment, news and reality-based shows one day after they air on their local station. For sports, ESPN Unlimited offers the full slate of ESPN networks, plus live sports from ABC, starting at $30 per month. TV fans who want access to on-demand ABC programming and live sports from ABC and ESPN can sign up for the Disney Bundle that includes Hulu, Disney Plus and ESPN Unlimited.
Last, Dish Network customers who prefer to have access to all their channels in a single place and switch from Dish Network to DIRECTV, which offers live access to ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox stations in its Signature packages. Dish Network customers who switch to DIRECTV Choice will get access to their local stations, plus national networks like ESPN, Fox News, CNN and more, for just $60 during their first month of service. DIRECTV Choice also includes access to ESPN Unlimited, Disney Plus and Hulu at no extra cost. DIRECTV Choice is available via satellite and streaming.
Other streaming TV providers that offer local TV channels from Gray Media include YouTube TV and Hulu with Live TV at varying price points. Fubo offers Gray Media-owned CBS, Fox and ABC stations, but not NBC.
Which Gray Media-owned channels are missing from Dish Network?
Gray Media has pulled a number of its local TV stations from Dish Network due to a dispute over fees that Dish Network must pay for the privilege of redistributing those channels. Some of the affected channels include:
- KCBD (Channel 11, NBC) in Lubbock
- KFDA (Channel 10, CBS) in Amarillo
- KGMB (Channel 5, CBS) in Honolulu
- KHNL (Channel 13, NBC) in Honolulu
- KKTV (Channel 11, CBS) in Colorado Springs
- KJTV (Channel 34, Fox) in Lubbock
- KMOV (Channel 4, CBS) in St. Louis
- KOLD-TV (Channel 13, CBS) in Tucson
- KOSA (Channel 7, CBS) in Odessa
- KPHO (Channel 5, CBS) in Phoenix
- KPTV (Channel 12, Fox) in Portland, Oregon
- KTVK (Channel 3) in Phoenix
- KWCH (Channel 12, CBS) in Wichita
- WANF (Channel 46) in Atlanta
- WCSC (Channel 5, CBS) in Charleston, South Carolina
- WEAU (Channel 13, NBC) in Eau Claire
- WMC-TV (Channel 5, NBC) In Memphis
- WPCH (Channel 17, CW) in Atlanta
- WSMV (Channel 4, NBC) in Nashville
- WVUE (Channel 8, Fox) in New Orleans
- WWSB (Channel 40, ABC) in Sarasota
For a full list of stations affected by the dispute, click or tap here.
