A retransmission feud between DISH Network and Dispatch Broadcast Group, the parent company of WTHR in Indianapolis and WBNS in Columbus, has taken a nasty turn.
The stations were pulled from DISH’s lineup on Friday at midnight after the two parties failed to agree on a carriage agreement. In a video that has been broadcast on WTHR in a loop since the blackout began, a DISH spokesperson says Dispatch “has blocked this station from the DISH lineup by not renewing its contract with us at fair and reasonable terms.”
“Dispatch has demanded a massive price increase in exchange for the rights to your local channels, a price that would translate into substantially higher costs for you,” the spokesperson says (video after the jump). “We can’t allow that to happen.”
In a statement on its Facebook page, WTHR said DISH’s claim “just isn’t true.”
“WTHR is simply asking for only a fraction of what some other channels receive,” the statement reads. “Many of those channels have a much smaller audience than WTHR.”
Watch the DISH video that has been broadcast on WTHR here: