WRCB-TV cut its requested increase in the carrying fee for the Dish Network by more than half this week, but the local NBC affiliate still hasn’t reached an agreement with the satellite provider as Dish subscribers enter their third week of a Channel 3 blackout.
WRCB negotiators originally asked Dish for more than four times the current rate to renew its contract for the satellite provider to carry NBC in Chattanooga. But the station since has dropped the requested increase to a 150 percent fee hike, according to Dish spokesman Aaron Johnson.
“They’re still asking for what I would say is an excessive rate increase,” he said. “We’ve done this with dozens of other stations over the last few years, so we know what a fair rate is and we’ve been able to do this with dozens of other stations without going into a blackout.”
Both Johnson and WRCB general manager Tom Tolar said there’s no reason for the blackout. Each side said it offered either to extend the previous agreement or operate under a temporary agreement, but the other side rejected the offer.
According to surveys by Scarborough Research, 107,451 people, or 15 percent of all TV viewers in the Chattanooga viewing area, are connected to the Dish Network.