Retrans Deadline Looms Between Dish, Gray

Gray Television announced today that as of 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Dish Network would not be able to carry stations owned and/or operated by Gray.  Dish currently carries 99 separate program streams under its expiring carriage agreement with Gray.

“We are shocked and disappointed to learn that Dish Network has decided to impose yet another blackout on its customers by taking away our stations, which broadcast some of the most highly rated programming on any broadcast or cable channel in their markets,” said Kevin Latek, Gray’s chief legal and development officer.

Gray’s announcement noted that it owns the No. 1- or No. 2-ranked station in more than 50 markets. “In many of these markets,” Gray said, its stations “have higher ratings in certain dayparts than every other broadcast station and cable channel combined. Despite the obvious popularity of Gray’s stations, Dish has refused after many months to even begin negotiating carriage terms that are consistent with those that Dish has provided to other broadcasters and cable channels.” 

Recently, Gray said, it offered Dish an extension that would have continued carriage beyond tomorrow’s deadline, “but Dish refused to accept it. Neither our stations nor the government nor Dish’s millions of fee-paying customers can force Dish to continue carrying our stations when, as here, it chooses to take leading stations off of its system for perceived leverage in private carriage negotiations. Indeed, in the last two years, Dish has dropped more than 200 local television stations. And in just the last two weeks, Dish has dropped or threatened to drop over 115 additional local broadcast channels owned and/or operated by Gray Television as well as local independent broadcasters Bonten Media, Griffin Communications, and Bonneville.”  

Latek added: “It is unfortunate that Dish does not see the same value in our programming as every other operator.”