If you have Dish Network, you don't have WTMJ-TV (Channel 4) — or any other stations owned by its parent company, Scripps Media. At least not on the satellite television service.
On Saturday, signals for Scripps stations went dark on Dish after the two sides couldn't reach an agreement on retransmission fees.
Satellite services and cable providers pay TV stations fees to carry their channels. Those fees have become increasingly important to station owners, as the traditional advertising model comes under threat from declining viewership and increasing competition.
And because the fees' importance has risen, so have the stakes — increasing the number of these conflicts, with viewers caught in the middle.
Over the weekend, each side blamed the other for the impasse. Scripps has TV stations in 42 markets around the United States, including Milwaukee. (Scripps acquired WTMJ-TV as part of its 2015 purchase of Journal Communications, including the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; a year later, it spun off the Journal Sentinel to Gannett.)
“To be clear, Scripps chose to black out its own viewers. We offered multiple extension options to keep the channels up while we continue to work toward reaching a deal during these unprecedented times, but they refused,” Andy LeCuyer, Dish Network's senior vice president of programming, said in a statement issued Saturday night.
“Dish’s refusal to negotiate to a fair agreement is preventing its customers from accessing pressing news during a global pandemic, a period of social unrest, an active political year and severe weather season for many parts of our country," Brian Lawlor, president of local media for Scripps, said in a statement on Scripps' website Saturday.
On its website, WTMJ-TV offered Dish subscribers alternative ways to get the station's programming, including over the air via a traditional antenna.
Although these retransmission impasses generally get resolved in a few days, they can get protracted. WISN-TV (Channel 12) was off Dish for nearly eight weeks in 2017, after a similar impasse between the satellite service and the station's owner, Hearst Television.
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Contact Chris Foran at chris.foran@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @cforan12.
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July 27, 2020 at 08:43PM
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Scripps stations, including WTMJ-TV (Channel 4) in Milwaukee, fade to black on Dish Network - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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