Timberwolves fans using DISH Network turned on Fox Sports North on Wednesday night and discovered their satellite television provider wasn’t broadcasting the season-opening game at Memphis.
The reason: DISH and FSN have failed to reach an agreement to provide 35 Wolves games this season, including Thursday’s home opener against Detroit.
FSN has agreements to air all 75 games it will exclusively cover this season with Charter, Comcast, DIRECTV and MediaCom, but DISH currently plans to air only 40 of those games.
Representatives for DISH and FSN declined to provide specifics on the impasse.
“As you can understand because every agreement is different,” said Mike Dimond, senior vice president and general manager of FSN.
In a statement, Colorado-based DISH said Fox “is requiring additional fees for carriage of many of the Timberwolves games on Fox Sports North, which would amount to extra costs for our customers.”
“We are not willing to pass those costs along, and will continue to negotiate our sports programming contracts with DISH customers in mind,” the statement said.
DISH has 14 million customers nationwide but does not disclose how many it has in the Upper Midwest, said company spokesman John Hall.
Dimond added that DISH is a “major provider” on par with Charter, Comcast and DIRECTV.
In a proactive move to alert customers, FSN placed a half-page ad in Wednesday’s Pioneer Press enouraging fans to find other providers of these games. Adding them is still an option for DISH, Dimond said.
“That’s up to DISH Network, really, because as we’ve shown, there is value there,” he said. “All of the other major providers are taking the games.”
Dimond said a complete list of games not provided by DISH is on FSN’s web site.
Follow Andy Greder at twitter.com/twolvesnow.
