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WKRG Remains Off Dish Network, FCC Complaint Filed
October 20, 2013
WKRG channel 5 has been missing from the Dish Network lineup for about two weeks due to a contract disagreement between its parent company Media General and the satellite provider.
Friday, Dish Network filed a complaint against Media General requested that the Federal Communications Commission immediately require Media General to negotiate in good faith to resolve the blackout.
“Media General’s conduct violates the Commission’s rules requiring good faith negotiation for retransmission consent rights, because, among other things, Media General failed to respond for 11 days to DISH’s last pre-blackout offer,” the complaint states.
Media General blocked programming from DISH customers in 17 markets after a retransmission contract expired. The disagreement is over the amount of the retransmission fee Dish must pay Media General to carry the company’s stations on their satellite network.
“DISH customers and Media General viewers were without their shows and events for 11 days before Media General would even contact us,” said Dave Shull, Dish executive vice president. “We reacted with a counter offer within hours and Media General has yet to respond. DISH is asking the FCC to act expeditiously to address Media General’s bad faith, push them back to the negotiating table and submit to mediation to get programming back to consumers.”
In a prepared statement released after the blackout, WKRG said Media General is doing everything it can to reach a fair resolution with DISH and have programming restored to the DISH satellite system.
On its website, WKRG says Dish customers can still watch the station for free over the air or by switching pay TV providers. According to the station, local news and other content is available on the station’s website.
Comments
19 Responses to “WKRG Remains Off Dish Network, FCC Complaint Filed”
Get a 50 mile range UHF/VHF outdoor antenna for about $70. Do NOT purchase a UHF only antenna. WALA-10 Fox is the only Pensacola/Mobile station broadcasting in VHF. Reception in Pensacola, where I live, is simply outstanding from the Baldwin County transmitter field along the I-10 corridor. WKRG-5 is a UHF station now, and its reception in Escambia, FL is excellent. Even a small indoor antenna can pick up WKRG. My mast is 25 ft, in the city with high rooflines and trees. Be sure to ground your mast with 10 AWG bare copper wire tied to the house ground. Also ground the coax lead due to the lightning risk.
Several websites allow you to locate your address, then provide aiming directions.
I also use a ROKU box tied to my WiFi and subscribe to Netflix for $9/mo. Can get about 200 Roku channels. Sports like football have been slow to get on the ROKU subscription bandwagon, but not basketball, hockey, and all MLB.
Best part is that I save $700/yr in cable/satellite bills. I have lots of things I can do with $700 each year.
Of you’re not overly sports addicted, the antenna and a ROKU box is a great option to cable and satellite company fees.
After 9 years of Dish, I switched over to Comcast and the picture is better and no rain-outs. Plus, I enjoy having a DVR in each room rather than sharing one with another room and each TV gets HD, where only the #1 TV on each box got HD. PLUS, my bill is $40 less (I already have Comcast internet and TV, so I get the bundle price) with EVERY SINGLE CHANNEL that I watched with Dish. PLUS, I get on demand, so I don’t have to DVR most of my TV shows, I can just go to OD and my shows are right there with limited commercials. It really has been a positive for me.
It was a bother at first but I called DISH and they gave me the 15 dollars off my bill to purchase an antenna. Who does WKRG think they are punishing anyways? Mostly themselves as customers now realize that the other local channels are far superior to their substandard programming. Fox and NBC have far better news and the occasional sports shows that I want to watch that are on channel 5 I’ll just use my DISH provided antenna. I refuse to change my cable provider because DISH is trying their best to keep our monthly bills lower than all the rest.
Forget Media General, I’ll down load my shows off the web and get my news from Fox.
@memyselfandi.. I totally agree with you.. You are doing the same thing I am doing, and its not much trouble to hook up the box just to watch a football game.. I also agree with Joe.. I watched WKRG news for several years, but now I watch channel 15 news.. It makes no difference to me whether they come to an agreement or not.. I will keep DISH!
I always have a over the air converter handy . When the weather gets bad all satellite service will fail. I paid nothing for the converter. The goverment gave away millions of these converters. Do some checking they still might be avaliable.
@ Noah….i have both dish and a converter box..all i do is unhook my dish box and plug my converter box in and i get any local channels for free. It might be a pain in the butt to have to do but i get to watch football. And also its great when the dish is out due to weather. But im upset like some other are cause you have to pay extra when you get channels what about a deduction for channels that we dont get in our packages…just saying!!!!
I watched Channel 5 news for years but the blackout has forced me to try others. I never knew how good Channel 15 News really was. Thanks WKRG and Dish!
Sounds as though Media General is taking its cues from some folks in Washington.
We have had Dish Network since ‘98. We tried Direct TV for a one week period about 5 years ago and were extremely disappointed. That being said, we have had several conversations with Dish regarding the loss of CBS, they explained that this type of thing goes on behind the scenes regularly and usually never interferes with customers programming. This “blackout” is the longest one in their company’s history and has occurred due to first Dish’s refusal to pay 4 times what it had been paying for broadcasting rights and then Media General’s refusal to come back to the negotiating table. We appreciate Dish’s efforts to control price increases that would most assuredly be past along to customers.
Most PEople Have A Flat Screen Hd Tv By Now Get A $20 Antenna And U Can Get These I Have Dish And Upset But Like Other Things Move forward
I suggest you drop Dish and pickup Directv. Better picture, program line up and then you will be able to watch CH 5.
What happened to must carry rules?
Bill Hoisington
Crestview FL.
We fo thorugh the same stuff with Bright House, sometimes 11 stations at a time for much longer than a few days but if you notice the bill is always for the same amount,,,,,,,,,,,, We are about tired of doing business with these different cable companies, weve tried them all and they just dont keep up their end of the deal.
However from what Im learning we soon wont need them.
I have one & I don’t have to have a converter box because my tv has the built-in tuner,no iI may not get to watch Duck Dynasty, which I love or swamp people but I don’t have a $100.00 cable bill either, if I’m patient, I can buy their dvds when they come out, doesn’t bother me much to do that as to what it would to pay a high bill just for a couple channels.
DISH, get local WKRG NFL (football) back or I’ll have to cancel. Tell me how to view the gomes from another source.
One would think that these free to air networks would want satellite and cable companies broadcasting their signals, considering the poor reception since they went all digital!!! It shouldn’t matter to them if you are watching from an antennae or satellite dish, it’s just more greed! They must not have thought far enough ahead tht these people might find other shows that they like while they are not able to watch theirs. Just sayin!
I think it’s a great ideal to get the FCC involved. It’s obvious both sides are stretching the truth to benefit their side. Since both parties avoid being honest, let an independent arbitrator who has no special interest try to steer them into making a fair decision. Everybody who receives rebroadcast local channels will be facing these same issues when their providers contract expires. OTA antennas do not work for everyone.
@ curious…
Excellent idea for the antenna and converter box.
Get one and it’s YOURS with no extra costs or taxes added on.
Valuable too in emergencies when cable and satellite are out due to power loss.
However, you cannot get Duck Dynasty over an antenna system.
If people would get a antenna, they would have local channels, personally, I think it’s crazy to depend on satellite or cable in order for people to get local channels for free, but I understand some people can’t be without.