Satellite MVPD DISH Network is locked once again into a retransmission consent battle with a television group. This time it’s Sinclair Broadcast Group, and time is short – the current agreement between the two companies expires at midnight8/15/12.
70 out of 74 Sinclair stations are involved in the dispute. (The company’s station total is set to expand to 82 once it closes on the pending acquisition of several Newport Television stations.)
In a statement, the television group said, “Although Sinclair is continuing to negotiate with Dish over the terms of a new agreement, Sinclair believes significant doubt exists as to whether or not a new agreement will be reached with Dish. In this event, Dish will discontinue carriage of these stations beginning at12:01 a.m.onThursday, August 16, 2012.”
DISH fired back, saying Sinclair was asking for a “massive” increase in compensation. “We carry more than 1,800 local broadcast stations nationwide. Sinclair is asking for more than any other station anywhere in the country,” said Dave Shull, senior vice president of programming for DISH. “This goes beyond pure corporate greed — it’s profoundly insensitive to the needs of the public.”
RBR-TVBR observation: DISH’s position would be more believable if this was a rare occurrence, but the fact is that DISH is one of only three MVPDs that tend to get involved in blackout situations. This piece of evidence strongly suggests that DISH, DirecTV and TWC are pushing negotiations to the blackout point. Most MVPDs rarely or never get that far, including those which carry Sinclair stations. Do the math…
Every Dish customer should be ashamed of both David Smith and his Sinclair Broadcast Group for this blackout that result in the viewers from being able to watch their favorite shows with Dish. I feel that David Smith and his Sinclair Broadcast Group are trying to be like the Neil Bogarts of Casablanca Records fame of the 1970’s disco era, the Trinity Broadcasting Network’s, the Harry Pappas as part of the Pappas Telecasting Companies, the Bernard Madoff’s, the Enron’s, the Worldcom’s, the Adelphia’s, the Tyco’s, and the Martha Stewart’s, of the 2000’s by letting broadcast greed get out of control so all of the head employees and bosses at Sinclair Broadcast Group to be able to enjoy carefree lavishly spending to support carefree lavishly lifestyles with luxurious homes, luxurious jets, luxurious cars, join luxurious clubs, and have other luxurious items just to make them very happy then trying and willingness to improve the quality of all the stations they owned and control and making the viewers happy as well. I hope and I wish that David Smith and his Sinclair Broadcast Group get scolded by both by the ACA and the FCC for making the viewers being forced to deal with this blackout because they could not make a deal to get the stations back to it’s customers sooner and with a fair deal with Dish. I hope and I wish that David Smith and his Sinclair Broadcast Group is barred from buying and owning anymore TV stations in the future after their final decision to remove the stations from Dish well as seeing their deal to acquire 6 stations from Newport Television getting cancelled. I feel that David Smith and his Sinclair Broadcast Group are trying to bribe like the General Tire/RKO General of the 1960’s and 1970’s by not being very honest of not only the viewers by making them miss the shows on Dish and also on themselves. I hope and I wish that the FCC would force David Smith and his Sinclair Broadcast Group to allow Dish to carry it’s stations without any interference before football season starts, in the event David Smith and his Sinclair Broadcast Group fails to allow Dish to carry it’s stations again, then the FCC would force David Smith and his Sinclair Broadcast Group to allow Dish to import out of market stations that are very real close to the station being blacked out being affiliated with the same network, in the event David Smith and his Sinclair Broadcast Group fails to allow Dish to import out of market stations that are very real close to the station being blacked out being affiliated with the same network, then the FCC would allow Dish to carry the out of market station with the same affiliation without any restrictions and also be allowed to continue to carry the out of market station that it’s digital television signal is reachable by a outdoor antenna including both it’s SD and HD feeds on the Dish satellite service system even after the dispute is over without any interference for 12 whole years to meet FCC rules and regulators. I would gladly love to see that David Smith and his Sinclair Broadcast Group to surrender, give up, and forfeit control of all the stations they owned and then the FCC would allow all the broadcasters be allowed to purchased any of the stations David Smith and his Sinclair Broadcast Group owns and control with the broadcasters being required to make a real big concession that they would promised not to have any difficulties with all the cable and satellite operators when making deals to carry stations without any interference for 12 whole years. I feel that both David Smith and his Sinclair Broadcast Group are way too busy being the Carly Rae Jepsen Call Me Maybe, Rebecca Black Friday, Double Take Hot Problems and Guns N Roses Axl Rose as well as trying be act like the Lyle and Erik Menendez’s as the greedy murderers, the Jeffrey Ireland’s and the Patrick Jones’s as the drunks, the Rodney Dangerfield’s, the John Belushi’s, and the Chris Farley’s as the comedians, the John Robert Ewing’s and the Cliff Barnes’s, the Charles Montgomery Burn’s, the Homer and Bart Simpson’s, the Peter Griffin’s, the Garfield cats, the Cookie Monster’s, the Miss Piggy’s, the Victor Newman’s of the broadcasting industry of not coming to reach a deal with Dish to carry it’s stations to the viewers everyday. I feel that both David Smith and his Sinclair Broadcast Group are trying to turn into the 1919 Chicago White Sox’s baseball team and the Southern Methodist University football of the 1980’s to force Dish to accept a take it or leave it deal to carry it’s stations. I urge all of the viewers with Dish to boycott both David Smith and his Sinclair Broadcast Group right now for making the Dish viewers suffer from being able to watch their favorite shows.
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