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Dish Network viewers could lose 3 stations

By: Brian Brus//The Journal Record//January 15, 2015//

Dish Network viewers could lose 3 stations

By: Brian Brus//The Journal Record//January 15, 2015//

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OKLAHOMA CITY – The attention of several thousand Dish Network Corp. customers was split between the clock and Oklahoma television stations as contract negotiations approached deadline Thursday.

By the end of the business day, neither side had blinked, and Griffin Communications spokesman Houston Hunt was stressing that CBS affiliates KWTV in Oklahoma City and KOTV in Tulsa, as well as Tulsa station KQCW, might be dropped from Dish broadcasts at 6 p.m.

“You will miss the (American Football Conference) Championship game on January 18 if an agreement is not reached,” the station posted online at keepnews9.com while an animated clock ticked down the seconds.

UPDATE: Friday morning, Griffin Communications said in a news release that Dish Network had dropped News 9, News on 6 and KSBI, as well as all CBS programming in the Oklahoma City market.

The key terms were “if” and “might,” however. More specific resolutions were not outlined.

“I have no other information to provide at this time,” said Dish spokeswoman Courtney Culpepper, when asked about options beyond the contract deadline.

“Only Griffin Licensing can force a blackout of its channels,” Culpepper said in an email to The Journal Record. “We are disappointed that Griffin decided to involve customers in the contract negotiation process at a point when there is time for the two parties to reach a mutually beneficial deal. Dish has successfully negotiated agreements representing hundreds of stations in recent months that benefit all parties, including our customers.”

Hunt said the problem is that Dish is refusing to fairly compensate the small, family-owned media company for its programming, compared with other cable and satellite broadcast partners. Like Culpepper, he would not divulge the sticking points of the contract.

Dish has a similar problem with Fox News Channel, but that four-week contract battle involves about 14 million customers being blocked from Fox programs featuring personalities such as Bill O’Reilly, compared with Hunt’s estimate of about 200,000 homes in Oklahoma. Fox has urged viewers to find replacement TV providers; KWTV has not taken that route.

“The beautiful thing is that people can still pick us up over the air for free; they can still get us with an antenna,” Hunt said. “They also have the ability to stream our newscasts live on our website. So there are alternative ways for people to get News 9 and News On 6. They just won’t be able to get any CBS or sports programming.”