More local stations are being removed for Dish customers in another disagreement over increased fees. The carriage dispute resulted in the blackout of three North Carolina stations: WRAZ-TV, Channel 50 (FOX, Raleigh-Durham, N.C.), WILM-TV, Channel 10 (IND, Wilmington, N.C.), and WRAL-TV, Channel 5 (NBC, Raleigh-Durham, N.C.).
Dish sent the following statement to Cord Cutters News, saying that the stations have refused Dish’s call for a contract extension.
“We don’t understand why Capitol Broadcasting has chosen to put our customers in the middle of these negotiations,” said Melisa Boddie, Programming Vice President, DISH. “We offered an extension to keep these stations up for customers while negotiations continued, but Capitol never responded. Instead, they ignored our offer and forced a blackout of three North Carolina TV stations.”
The stations have also released their own statement, arguing that they aren’t making outrageous demands.
“WRAL and FOX50 are not pushing for things that are unreasonable,“ said Jimmy Goodmon, president and chief operating officer of Capitol Broadcasting. “We are asking to be paid market rate for our programming so we can pay the affiliation fees required by NBC and FOX. This isn’t about greed; it’s about survival for our small, locally owned media company. Now, more than ever, local television news and original programming is a critical service to our community.”
Dish is currently involved in several other carriage disputes, including one for local channels from Mission Broadcasting and another with Sinclair over regional sports channels.