BOCA RATON, FLA. — Relive. Respond. Revive. That’s the tag line associated with “The Rebound,” the local business-focused promotional effort developed by The E.W. Scripps Co. as a community builder for its 60 broadcast TV stations across 42 markets.
As of Sunday (7/26), that rebound and the ability for consumers and local businesses to continue to recover from COVID-19 impacted business dips suffered a bit of a setback.
You could blame Dish. Or, you could point fingers at Scripps. No matter whose at fault, the latest retransmission fee impasse has arrived. And, it blocks local TV stations in markets ranging from New York to San Luis Obispo, Calif., from reaching Dish consumers.
Scripps was quite clear in its assessment of which party is to blame for the loss of signal to Dish subscribers.
“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,” said Brian Lawlor, Scripps’ President of Local Media, adding that “reasonable terms for both parties” was the broadcast media company’s chief objective.
Lawlor further noted that the impasse between Scripps and Dish, “after five months of discussions,” is not about the rates DISH pays the owner of such stations as WMAR-2 in Baltimore, WCPO-9 in Cincinnati, WXYZ-7 in Detroit, WKBW-7 in Buffalo and KGTV-10 in San Diego.
Rather, it is Dish’s inability to agree on “other distribution terms.”
What those terms are was not elaborated on by Lawlor. But, Scripps did note that the blocking of its stations to a pay TV distributor is a historic first: its stations have “never gone dark” since the company launched its first station, in Cleveland, in 1947.
A full roster of Scripps’ TV stations appears here.
Scripps’ stations can be found in markets big and small. And, it enjoys a duopoly in such locales as Bakersfield; Corpus Christi, Tex.; Denver; Detroit; Great Falls, Mont.; and Kansas City.
What’s Dish’s take on the situation?
Dish claims that Scripps did not respond to its offers to keep its channels available to its subscribers as a tactic designed to gain “negotiation leverage,” Engadget reports. And, Dish says Scripps rejected a plan to match the rates it has negotiated with other MVPDs.
What’s the situation for viewers? Scripps station websites are directing viewers to use over-the-air digital antennas, and to streaming platforms such as Roku and Amazon Fire TV for local newscast access.
