According to reports Dish was pushing for rights to CBS cable networks including CBS Sports Network. Sling TV did not want CBS locals, and that was the sticking point. According to people close to the talks that talked with Multichannel News CBS wanted Sling TV to carry all of the local CBS affiliates. Sling TV pushed pack and that became the sticking point.
Sling TV has long had a stance that they wanted to keep pricing low by not including the high cost of locals. Instead of adding locals and raising prices Sling TV is offering antennas and even a streaming player that will combine Sling TV streaming with your Antenna called Air TV with a new Air TV 2 expected in January.
Recently Sling TV has kept their base pricing at $20 to $25 a month when other services have been raising their pricing to the $39.99 price point. CBS wants their locals carried as that would bring them a fat paycheck from Sling TV. It has been rumored for some time now that Sling TV is refusing to include new locals in their base packages as networks like CBS want if that results in a price hike.
Recently CBS’s CEO Les Moonves opened up about why they are pushing CBS locals on live TV streaming services. “When consumers cut the cord and switch to skinny bundles, the economics get better for us, growing rates as well,” Moonves said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call with analysts earlier this month.
“When a viewer switches from a traditional distributor to a streaming skinny bundle, CBS’s fee doubles, he said. If they subscribe to CBS All Access, CBS’s haul sometime triples. “OTT is a more profitable business model.”
Now CBS and Dish have a new deal for Dish’s satellite service but no agreement for Sling TV to get any new CBS owned networks.
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