What did you watch this weekend? If you have Dish, it wasn’t Fox News.
After contract negotiations came to a halt between 21st Century Fox and Dish Network, the Fox News Channel and the Fox Business Network went dark for Dish customers on Saturday, and the channels remain dark still.
21st Century Fox is the parent company of FNC and FBN, as well as several sports and entertainment channels. Dish Network is a satellite TV provider with over 14 million customers and – until recently – a distributor of Fox.
The Wall Street Journal reports that a “senior Fox News executive” told them that “there are currently no talks between the two companies.”
Contract negotiation between Dish Network and 21st Century Fox stalled when Dish refused a fee increase for Fox’s other channels, a price Fox calls standard for the changing news industry.
Warren Schlichting, the senior vice president of programming at Dish, said in a statement that “it’s like we’re about to close on a house and the realtor is trying to make us buy a new car as well.”
Schlichting accused Fox of using its news channels as “leverage to triple rates on sports and entertainment channels that are not in this contract.”
Tim Carry, the executive vice president of distribution at Fox News Channel, told the Wall Street Journal that Dish “did not want to accept terms and commitments that have become customary in a Fox News renewal.”
In a statement, Carry added that:

“It is unfortunate that the millions of Fox News viewers on Dish were used as pawns by their provider… Hopefully they will vote with their hard earned money and seek another one of our other valued distributors immediately.”
This is not the first time Dish customers have lost access to channels due to stalled negotiations. In October, channels such as CNN, Cartoon Network and Turner Classic Movies were blacked out for a month as Dish negotiated with Turner Broadcasting. Earlier this month, customers also temporarily lost access to CBS and its affiliates.
“This is the third time in as many months that Dish customers have suffered through a blackout due to Dish’s intransigence,” Carry told the Wall Street Journal. “Dish’s record speaks for itself and makes its rhetoric about ‘reasonable’ agreements ring hollow.”
Fox launched a website, keepfoxnews.com, where they are encouraging Fox fans to switch TV providers. Viewers can enter their zip codes and discover TV providers who still offer Fox. The website also encourages Fox fans to call and email Dish to register their complaints about losing the networks, and to use the hashtag #DontBlockFOXNews.
Carry told Bloomberg that the website has “generated 22,000 e-mails and 7,000 phone calls requesting that Dish reinstate the channel.”
Dish has also launched its own website dishstandsforyou.com, where they tell customers “we regret that Fox has chosen to remove their programming from DISH customers.” 
___________________________ 

Fox Fans Fight DISH Network


PAUL SAKUMA/AP
by Breitbart News21 Dec 201431

Across America, customers of the DISH TV Network have lost access to the Fox News Channel and the Fox Business Network. Difficult negotiations between TV channels and TV carriers are a familiar feature of the new-media environment, but in this case, Dish prematurely dropped FNC and FBN at 11:50 p.m. ET Saturday night, before negotiations had even ended. 


This rupture has not gone over well with Fox fans. As TV Newser reports:

Fox viewers…are fully engaged. Since 6 a.m. Sunday, over 12,000 calls have been placed to Fox–and 7,000 of them asked to be connected to Dish to disconnect their service. The network reports 22,000 viewer emails have been sent to Dish to object to the Fox blackout, and viewers have swarmed the Dish Facebook page.

Breitbart News obtained this statement from Fox News Executive Vice President of Distribution Tim Carry:

It is disappointing that, after nearly two decades without a blackout, FOX News Channel has been blocked by DISH Network. We care deeply about our viewers and hope that they will regain access to the number one cable news channel soon. We will continue to work around the clock to reach an agreement with DISH, as we have done with every other pay-TV provider for 18 years. This is the third time in as many months that DISH customers have suffered through a blackout due to DISH’s intransigence. DISH’s record speaks for itself, and makes its rhetoric about “reasonable” agreements ring hollow.

Fox News Channel did not disconnect Dish, rather, Dish prematurely ceased distribution of Fox News in an attempt to intimidate and sway our negotiations. It is unfortunate that the millions of Fox News viewers on Dish were used as pawns by their provider. Hopefully they will vote with their hard earned money and seek another one of our other valued distributors immediately.

Fox Fans might be interested in knowing of a website, keepfoxnews.com, which provides information on communicating with DISH, as well as tools for finding other ways to watch the Fox News Channel. As one industry insider put it, “This is a fight that Dish picked—and they’ll soon wish they hadn’t.”