Dish Drops Two Fox Channels

Dish Drops Two Fox Channels

Satellite Broadcaster, Fox Couldn’t Agree on Distribution Pact Renewal

By Joe Flint in the Wall Street Journal

Satellite-TV provider Dish Network Corp. is no longer carrying 21st Century Fox’s Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network after the companies couldn’t come to terms on a new distribution contract.

The channels went dark for Dish customers Saturday night, and there are currently no talks between the two companies, a senior Fox News executive said.

Dish, which has 14 million subscribers, accused Fox of attempting to use the contract talks as leverage to increase fees for sports and entertainment channels covered by contracts separate from the Fox News and Fox Business agreements.

“It’s like we’re about to close on a house and the Realtor is trying to make us buy a new car as well,” said Warren Schlichting, Dish’s senior vice president of programming.

Fox said the deal it offered Dish has been accepted by other major pay-TV distributors.

“They did not want to accept terms and commitments that have become customary in a Fox News renewal,” said Tim Carry, the Fox News executive in charge of distribution.

21st Century Fox and Wall Street Journal-owner News Corp were part of the same company until June 2013.

Disagreements over programming fees have become common. As more consumers opt for other methods of entertainment, including streaming services such as Netflix Inc., pay-TV distributors are pushing back against content companies’ demands for fee increases. Programmers counter that their costs are rising, too, and they need increased subscriber fees to pay for sports and entertainment.

Besides negotiating fees and additional channels, Fox and Dish were also trying to resolve a legal dispute over Dish’s digital video recorder, which includes a special commercial-skipping feature. Dish is also seeking rights to Fox-owned channels for a new Internet video service it is launching.

Dish has had several fights with programmers lately. Earlier this month, CBS Corp. channels briefly went dark on Dish until the companies signed a new contract. Dish also dropped Time Warner ’s CNN and Cartoon Network for a month before agreeing to a short-term deal.

“This is the third time in as many months that Dish customers have suffered through a blackout due to Dish’s intransigence,” Mr. Carry said. “Dish’s record speaks for itself and makes its rhetoric about ‘reasonable’ agreements ring hollow.”