Latest Capitol Quarrel With DISH Is Resolved

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The locally owned company that owns two stations in the Raleigh-Durham market, including its current NBC affiliate, and a TV station in the Wilmington, N.C., market, has reached a new long-term retransmission fee agreement with DISH Network.



RBR+TVBR OBSERVATION (Full Text Below, for Members Only): In January 2015 Capitol noted that, since January 2013, DISH “has forced” 144 local stations in 41 states and 12 networks off the air, and accounts for 1/3 of all such blackouts during the time period. Listen, TV peeps: The retransmission fee battles are uglier than ever, and as they continue, viewers are just going to cut the cord, dump the dish, and ignore y’all. 


Noting that the deal “was completed months in advance of the contract expiration date,” Raleigh-based Capitol Broadcasting Company announced late Monday that it has secured a long-term deal with DISH that keeps its WRAL-5 and FOX-affiliated WRAZ-50 on Triangle channel lineups. The deal also keeps low-power unaffiliated WILM-10 on DISH’s lineups in the Wilmington-New Bern-Jacksonville DMA.

WILM was the CBS affiliate in Wilmington until the end of 2016; WRAL’s 30-year relationship with CBS came to an end on March 1, 2016, when it switched to NBC.

Jimmy Goodmon, President/COO of Capitol Broadcasting Company, said, “We worked out an agreement that is fair to both sides in less than 48 hours of negotiations, months in advance of the deadline, for the benefit of our viewers and DISH subscribers. This shows what can happen when reasonable business partners share common interests and work together.”

Goodmon added that his company appreciates that DISH “understands the value of our local channels for their customers.”

The newly forged accord is a far cry from what transpired in January 2015, when DISH was forced to yank the three stations from its respective North Carolina channel lineups when a new retransmission fee agreement with Capitol could not be reached. At the time, WILM and WRAL were CBS affiliates.

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