Many of Dish Network’s 14.3 million customers across the nation may not be able to watch their favorite Fox shows Monday if a contract dispute between the two networks continues, the companies say.
Despite the ongoing national feud, Chattanooga Fox affiliate WDSI-Channel 61 reports no impending changes to its programming.
Customers in Chattanooga previously lost Fox channels such as Fox Sports South, SportSouth, FX and the National Geographic Channel at the beginning of October as a result of the disagreement between Fox and Dish, according to Mark Lumpkin, a Dish spokesman.
But only local network affiliates that are directly owned by Fox Networks will fall to the latest blackout, he said.
WDSI is owned by Pennsylvania-based New Age Media, LLC., not News Corp., the owner of the Fox Networks.
“The Fox News Channel and local Fox television stations are covered under a different contract and are unaffected by the dispute,” said Linda Greenwald, corporate program director for New Age Media.
Tracye McCarthy, general manager for the local station, said it has “no contract changes coming up with Dish and no impending changes of coverage.”
While a Fox-sponsored website showed that the Atlanta and Memphis markets are set Monday to lose programming, such as “American Idol,” “Glee,” “House,” “The Simpsons” and NFL and World Series games, WDSI was not included in the list of stations set to go dark.
Chattanooga area resident Charles Wilson, who recently found out about the missing channels from a Direct TV advertisement, was displeased by the dispute and the channels he has lost.
“The sad part is Dish Network is not telling their customers about this; they are letting us find out the hard way,” Wilson said. “I am actually a new customer with Dish, and I would have never switched if I knew this. Now I am stuck in a contract and they will not let me out of it.”
Ringgold Telephone Co. customers who get their TV through Dish Network also were affected by previous station losses, a customer service representative said, though she could not confirm whether customers would lose Fox programming on Monday.
Dish Network said in a news release that the dispute arose because “Fox is demanding a new contract with an unprecedented rate increase of more than 50 percent.” Fox refused to continue broadcasting the channels during negotiations, he added.
Meanwhile, Fox claimed that it was Dish that had dropped the channels during negotiations, while both accused the other of negotiating in bad faith.
“We are simply asking Dish to compensate us fairly out of their massive profits for Fox’s entertainment and sports programming services they sell to you,” Fox said in a note to customers.
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