At midnight on Friday, LIN Media pulled 27 of its stations off of DISH systems in 17 markets. The black-out came as LIN was unable to reach a new retrans agreement with DISH before the previous contract expired on the 4th.
“We only want what is fair for our local stations,” Vincent Sadusky, LIN’s president and CEO, said as the company announced the black-out. “We will continue negotiating with DISH so we may reach an agreement.”
DISH shot back on Friday, saying that LIN is seeking an “outrageous” 175% rate increase in the first year.
“LIN Media is simply being greedy, insisting on a rate increase so immense that DISH Network and its customers couldn’t possible absorb it,” said Dave Shull, senior vice president of programming for DISH.
The black-out, which includes stations in Providence, Buffalo, and Indianapolis, began just as the FCC was working out new rules to avoid such extreme negotiating tactics.
“Retransmission consent negotiations have become more contentious recently, and consumers have gotten caught in the middle,” chairman Julius Genachowski said at FCC’s meeting last week.
Here are the LIN stations that have been pulled from DISH:
Albuquerque: KRQE and KASA
Austin: KXAN and KNVA
Buffalo: WIVB and WNLO
Columbus: WWHO
Dayton: WDTN-WBDT
Ft. Wayne: WANE
Grand Rapids: WOOD-WOTV
Green Bay: WLUK
Indianapolis: WISH and WNDY
Lafayette: WLFI
Mobile: WALA and WFNA
New Haven: WTNH and WCTX
Norfolk: WAVY and WVBT
Providence: WPRI and WNAC
Springfield, MA: WWLP
Terre Haute: WTHI
Toledo: WUPW