It’s now eleven days and counting for a major “blackout,” as required by Federal law, of all Nexstar Media Group-owned over-the-air channels and the nationally distributed WGN America cable network on Dish, due to the absence of a new retransmission consent agreement.
Could it be months before they return? It just took Cox Media Group, controlled by Apollo Global Management, nearly five months to ink a new deal with the direct broadcast satellite TV services provider.
News about the new accord with Dish trickled out midday Sunday (12/14) from 13 Cox-owned stations impacted by an impasse that started in late July.
Cox had little to say, offering a brief messages on its stations stating, “We are pleased to have reached an agreement with DISH that allows our loyal viewers to continue watching our quality local and network programming.”
All stations were immediately returned to Dish lineups.
The impacted stations now back on Dish are:
- WSB-2 (ABC, Atlanta)
- WFXT-25 (FOX, Boston)
- WSOC-9 (ABC, Charlotte) and WAXN-64 (Unaffiliated, Charlotte)
- WHIO-7 (CBS, Dayton)
- WFOX-30 (FOX, Jacksonville) and WFOX-30-DT2 (MyNetwork TV)
- WHBQ-13 (FOX, Memphis)
- WFTV-9 (ABC, Orlando) and WRDQ-27 (Unaffiliated, Orlando)
- WPXI-11 (NBC, Pittsburgh)
- KIRO-7 (CBS, Seattle)
- KOKI-23 (FOX, Tulsa) and KMYT-41 (MyNetwork TV, Tulsa)
Not impacted are markets comprising what was Brian Brady’s Northwest Broadcasting, now a part of Cox’s “Terrier” assets. Those stations include the NBC and CBS affiliates serving the Redwood Coast of North California, KIEM-3 and KVIQ-14 in Eureka-Arcata, Calif. While warning notices of a possible “blackout” were posted to the stations’ website in November, they are now gone.
The fade-to-black for the heritage Cox Media Group stations by Dish came after a Federal court on July 22 dissolved a temporary restraining order put into place in January 2020 by Cook County, Ill., Circuit Court. This enjoined Apollo from interfering with Dish’s ability to bring Cox Media Group stations to viewers per its original agreement, pre-Apollo reorganization.
That case was transferred to federal court, leading to the July 22 dissolution of the TRO.
The litigation between Dish and Apollo stemmed from questions over Dish’s carriage agreement for the Cox stations, and whether it was prematurely terminated when Apollo completed its acquisition of a majority stake in the company.
The case was closed two months ago, with an October 16 termination and judgment ruling in favor of Dish declared on September 14.
In short, Dish moved to dismissed the case. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois concurred. But, it dismissed the claim from Cox without prejudice. As such, “If Terrier believes it has a claim for copyright damages outside of the period of the TRO, it may move for leave to file an amended complaint by October 5,” the court says.
It did. Cox, which filed the lawsuit against Dish as Terrier Media Buyer Inc., then filed an appeal on November 13.
