Dish Asks Tribune To Agree To Arbitration

Dish Network today invited Tribune Broadcasting Co. to enter into binding, baseball-style arbitration modeled on the successful arbitration procedures from the Comcast/NBCU merger to determine the fair market value of their channels. As part of the arbitration process, Dish has asked Tribune to restore its channels on Dish.

“We want to return these local stations to our customers immediately, and binding, baseball-style arbitration offers a path to reach a fair deal and to serve the best interests of our customers,” said Warren Schlichting, Dish EVP of programming.

Tribune blacked out Dish customer access to 42 local channels in 33 markets early Sunday evening.

Dish continues to distribute tens of thousands of free over-the-air antennas to customers blacked out by Tribune Broadcasting. The offer remains active and Dish continues to fulfill orders.

“Our solution to offer free over-the-air antennas to impacted consumers has been tremendously successful, and provided consumers with a meaningful option to fight back against the unreasonable demands of broadcasters whose primary goal should be to serve the very consumers that they are using as pawns to gain negotiating leverage,” said Schlichting.

At issue is the renewal of a new multi-year carriage agreement between Dish and Tribune. Dish claims Tribune has asked for “significant rate increases in the face of declining overall viewership,” as well as carriage of Tribune’s cable channel, WGN America, along with the TV stations.