Tegna Files Cross-Complaint Against Dish

Tegna Inc. today announced that it has filed a response to what it called Dish Nertwork’s “baseless” complaint against it to the FCC and, in addition, has filed its own cross-complaint at the commission against Dish for “its failure to comply with the FCC’s good faith rules and its material misrepresentations about the negotiation to the FCC and the public.”

The company issued the following statement:

“As we speak, millions of Dish customers are being deprived of valued local and national news, weather coverage, NFL and college football and top-rated entertainment shows. Instead of working to restore our programming, Dish is abusing the FCC’s processes and, more importantly, wasting their customers’ time with baseless complaints.

“Our response and cross-complaint show that it is Dish which has acted in bad faith, not only by obstructing negotiations over many months but also through the distortions it has presented to the public and the FCC. Unfortunately, Dish’s behavior is consistent with its track record of obstructive tactics. Last year alone, Dish deprived its customers of more than 230 different channels due to disputes like this one. In addition, the company has a long history of abusing the process by bringing business disputes to regulators and courts.

“We welcome the FCC’s review of Dish’s conduct, but our main focus remains on reaching a fair, market-based deal, just as we have with Dish’s competitors over the past several years. We yet again call on Dish to engage in serious negotiations with us to restore its subscribers’ access to our stations’ valued programming.”

Tegna’s complaint against Dish can be found here.