At 7pm Eastern on July 16, local TV stations owned by Meredith Corp. in 12 DMAs including Phoenix, Nashville and Atlanta were blocked by DISH.
The reason? A new retransmission fee agreement couldn’t be reached.
Nearly two months later, a consent accord has finally been signed by the media company and the DBS provider.
In a statement released Thursday morning, Meredith Local Media Group President Pat McCreery expressed that the company was pleased that DISH customers are again able to view the company’s 17 TV stations. “We thank our viewers for their patience as we worked with DISH to reach this new agreement,” he said.
DISH did not immediately comment on the new pact. Financial terms were not disclosed.
As of 10:47am, DISH shares were off 1.1% to $36.23, ending a rally that began August 23, when DISH stock hit a year-to-date low of $31.04. The year-to-date high of $43.26 came just one month before, on July 23.
For MDP, shares were up 10 cents to $38.42, continuing a rebound from a steep 25% drop in value on Sept. 5 triggered by a poor fiscal 2020 outlook, accompanying its full-year and fiscal Q4 2019 results.
Also of note: A big Meredith stock acquisition by its leader. President/CEO Tom Harty purchased 12,000 shares of MDP on the open market following the big dip in price. He did so at an average price of $35.02 per share.
The resolution of a eight-week-long retransmission fee impasse ends yet another blame game, featuring fingerpointing by both parties. “By law, cable and satellite companies must negotiate in good faith with television stations before dropping the TV stations’ signals,” Meredith said in July. “DISH failed to reach an agreement.”
McCreery added that Meredith had been trying “for months” to get DISH to negotiate seriously.
DISH said it is Des Moines-based Meredith that was the bad actor preventing local viewers from receiving its channels on the direct broadcast satellite’s services.
“Meredith is blocking consumers in an effort to gain negotiating leverage as it demands higher monthly rates for its local channels,” DISH claimed. “Meredith is also asking DISH to pay for subscribers who choose to receive their local channels for free over the air.”
A Denver-based customer service specialist told RBR+TVBR that customers have the option of removing all local channels from its “America’s Top 120” package, lowering the monthly pre-tax rate from $59.99 per month to $47.99.
While DISH and Meredith resolved their retrans differences, what transpires in future years will certainly be the subject of concern by MVPDs, DISH and AT&T, and other broadcast TV companies, notwithstanding D.C. lobbying groups including ACA Connects and the ATVA.
“Consumer-related” revenue — assumingly retrans consent dollars — climbed to $84.4 million in Meredith’s fiscal Q4 2019, from $73.7 million, saving the day for the company’s Local Media division. Total ad-related dollars were off to $111.9 million, from $123.7 million.
The following stations are currently being restored by DISH Network to its subscribers:
- Atlanta: CBS affiliate WGCL-46
- Phoenix: CBS affiliate KPHO-5 and “AZ Family” news-intensive KTVK-3
- St. Louis: CBS affiliate KMOV-4
- Portland: FOX affiliate KPTV-12 and MyNetworkTV affiliate KPDX-TV
- Nashville NBC affiliate WSMV-4
- Kansas City: CBS affiliate KCTV-TV and non-affiliated KSMO-TV
- Hartford-New Haven: CBS affiliate WFSB-3
- Greenville-Spartanburg: FOX affiliate WHNS-TV
- Las Vegas: FOX affiliate KVVU-5
- Mobile-Pensacola: FOX affiliate WALA-TV
- Flint-Saginaw, Mich.: CBS affiliate WNEM-TV
- Springfield-Holyoke, Mass.: CBS affiliate WSHM-TV, FOX affiliate WGGB-DT and ABC affiliate WGGB-TV
For Atlanta TV audiences, DISH subscribers will now be able to enjoy a new co-anchor for CBS46 News at 4pm, 6pm and 11pm, as Rick Folbaum has joined WGCL-TV. He will also co-anchor the 9pm newscast on co-owned WPCH-17, “Peachtree TV.”
Folbaum has most recently been an anchor for CNN International. Before that, he spent five years as a news anchor at CBS O&O WFOR-4 in Miami.
