Citadel Communications quietly resolved its retransmission consent standoff with Dish Network and all four Citadel signals were restored to Dish subscribers over the past weekend – 37 days after they were taken off.
Citadel COO Ray Cole says the agreement finally got done after his CEO, Phil Lombardo, and Dish CEO Charlie Ergen got personally involved.
Cole won’t disclose any financial terms or the length, except to say that it is a “long-term” agreement. The deal includes HD as well as standard definition signals from the four stations: ABC WOI-TV Des Moines, IA; ABC KCAU-TV Sioux City, IA; CBS WHBF-TV Quad Cities, IA-IL; and ABC KLKN-TV Lincoln, NE. The HD signals of WOI and KCAU are expected to available on Dish before the end of this year, with the other two sometime next year after a new satellite is launched.
“We stated all along that we were striving to reach carriage terms that were fair to both parties…and the new agreement provides for exactly that. The direct, personal involvement of Charlie Ergen and Phil Lombardo down the homestretch certainly helped move things along,” Cole told RBR/TVBR.
