Dish Won’t Drop Sinclair Local Affiliates For Now, Two Sides Reach Temporary Extension
With Sinclair’s agreement with Dish set to expire tonight, the two sides reached a short-term temporary extension that will keep Sinclair-owned CBS, FOX, NBC, and ABC affiliates and Tennis Channel from going dark for now.
In a statement, Sinclair SVP & GC David Gibber said, “We have agreed to a short-term extension with DISH to continue conversations. We will continue to update our viewers as this develops. Sinclair stands willing to continue to negotiate in good faith and to enter into a longer extension to allow for the continued carriage of our channels to DISH’s subscribers.”
This comes after he said last week, “We have tried unsuccessfully to reach fair and customary terms with DISH Network for the renegotiation of our retransmission consent. Given the status of these negotiations, we feel it is important to alert DISH Network subscribers to the real risk that some of their favorite stations will no longer be available through DISH Network including their access to live, local news, popular syndicated programming, sports programming including college and NFL football, and the network programming of our ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and CW affiliates in those markets.”
“Sinclair is demanding DISH pay nearly a billion dollars in fees for their television channels — a massive increase from what we pay for these same channels today despite declining viewership,” said Brian Neylon, Group President, DISH TV in a statement last week. “Sinclair is making these outrageous demands, turning its back on its public interest obligation and putting customers in the middle of its negotiations.”
After Sinclair purchased the former Fox Sports regional sports networks in mid-2019, Dish and Sling TV dropped the RSNs from their lineups, and to date, have not returned them.
Late last year, Dish customers were without Nexstar locals in 120 markets during a dispute with that company. The channels returned after a three-week blackout.
In September 2019, AT&T and Sinclair had a pro-longed multi-month carriage dispute – but the channels were never officially dropped from DirecTV. Instead, the two sides continued to reach temporary extensions while they negotiated a new deal to carry Sinclair locals and Fox Sports RSNs.
Full List of Sinclair-owned Affiliates
| STATION | DMA |
|---|---|
| KTXS (ABC) | Abilene-Sweetwater, TX |
| WRGB (CBS) | Albany - Schnectady - Troy, NY |
| WFXL (FOX) | Albany, GA |
| KVII (ABC) | Amarillo, TX |
| KEYE (CBS) | Austin, TX |
| KBAK (CBS), KBFX (FOX) | Bakersfield, CA |
| WBFF (FOX) | Baltimore, MD |
| KFDM (CBS), KFDM-DT3 (FOX) | Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX |
| WBMA (ABC) | Birmingham (Anniston and Tuscaloosa), AL |
| KBOI (CBS) | Boise, ID |
| WUTV (FOX) | Buffalo, NY |
| KTVM (NBC) | Butte-Bozeman, MT |
| KGAN (CBS), KGAN-DT2 (FOX) | Cedar Rapids-Waterloo-Iowa City & Dubuque, IA |
| WICS (ABC) | Champaign & Springfield-Decatur, IL |
| WCIV (ABC) | Charleston, SC |
| WCHS (ABC), WCHS-DT2 (FOX) | Charleston-Huntington, WV |
| WTVC (ABC), WTVC-DT2 (FOX) | Chattanooga, TN |
| KRCR (ABC) | Chico-Redding, CA |
| WKRC (CBS) | Cincinnati, OH |
| WACH (FOX) | Columbia, SC |
| KRCG (CBS) | Columbia-Jefferson City, MO |
| WSYX (ABC), WSYX-DT3 (FOX) | Columbus, OH |
| KSCC (FOX) | Corpus Christi, TX |
| WKEF (ABC), WKEF-DT2 (FOX) | Dayton, OH |
| KDSM (FOX) | Des Moines-Ames, IA |
| KFOX (FOX), KDBC (CBS) | El Paso (Las Cruces), TX-NM |
| KVAL (CBS) | Eugene, OR |
| KAEF (ABC) | Eureka, CA |
| WSMH (FOX) | Flint-Saginaw-Bay City, MI |
| KMPH (FOX) | Fresno-Visalia, CA |
| WGFL (CBS) | Gainesville, FL |
| WWMT (CBS) | Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo-Battle Creek, MI |
| WLUK (FOX) | Green Bay-Appleton, WI |
| WXLV (ABC) | Greensboro-High Point-Winston Salem, NC |
| WCTI (ABC) | Greenville-New Bern-Washington, NC |
| WLOS (ABC) | Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville-Anderson, SC-NC |
| WHP (CBS) | Harrisburg-Lancaster-Lebanon-York, PA |
| WJAC (NBC) | Johnstown-Altoona-State College, PA |
| KSNV (NBC) | Las Vegas, NV |
| WDKY (FOX) | Lexington, KY |
| KHGI (ABC), KFXL (FOX) | Lincoln & Hastings-Kearny, NE |
| KATV (ABC) | Little Rock-Pine Bluff, AR |
| WGXA (FOX), WGXA-2 (ABC) | Macon, GA |
| WMSN (FOX) | Madison, WI |
| KTVL (CBS) | Medford-Klamath Falls, OR |
| KECI (NBC) | Missoula, MT |
| WEAR (ABC) | Mobile-Pensacola (Ft. Walton Beach), AL-FL |
| WPDE (ABC) | Myrtle Beach-Florence, SC |
| WZTV (FOX) | Nashville, TN |
| KOKH (FOX) | Oklahoma City, OK |
| KPTM (FOX) | Omaha, NE |
| KTVO (ABC), KTVO-DT2 (CBS) | Ottumwa-Kirksville, IA-MO |
| KBSI (FOX) | Paducah-Cape Girardeau-Harrisburg, KY-MO-IL |
| WPGH (FOX) | Pittsburgh, PA |
| WGME (CBS) | Portland-Auburn, ME |
| KATU (ABC) | Portland, OR |
| WJAR (NBC) | Providence-New Bedford, RI-MA |
| KHQA-TV (CBS), KHQA-DT2 (ABC) | Quincy-Hannibal-Keokuk, IL-MO-IA |
| KRXI (FOX) | Reno, NV |
| WRLH (FOX) | Richmond-Petersburg, VA |
| WSET (ABC) | Roanoke-Lynchburg, VA |
| WUHF (FOX) | Rochester, NY |
| KUTV (CBS) | Salt Lake City, UT |
| KTXE-LD (ABC) | San Angelo, TX |
| KABB (FOX), WOAI (NBC) | San Antonio, TX |
| WTGS (FOX) | Savannah, GA |
| KOMO (ABC) | Seattle-Tacoma, WA |
| KPTH (FOX), KPTH-DT3 (CBS) | Sioux City, IA |
| WSBT (CBS), WSBT-DT2 (FOX) | South Bend-Elkhart, IN |
| KLEW (CBS) | Spokane, WA |
| KDNL (ABC) | St. Louis, MO |
| WSTM (NBC) | Syracuse, NY |
| WTWC (NBC), WTWC-DT2 (FOX) | Tallahassee-Thomasville, FL-GA |
| WNWO (NBC) | Toledo, OH |
| WPBN (NBC) | Traverse City-Cadillac, MI |
| WCYB (NBC) | Tri-Cities, TN-VA |
| KTUL (ABC) | Tulsa, OK |
| WJLA (ABC) | Washington, DC (Hagerstown, MD) |
| WPEC (CBS) | West Palm Beach-Ft. Pierce, FL |
| WTOV (NBC), WTOV-DT2 (FOX) | Wheeling-Steubenville, WV-OH |
| KSAS (FOX) | Wichita-Hutchinson Plus, KS |
| WOLF (FOX) | Wilkes Barre-Scranton-Hazleton, PA |
| KIMA (CBS) | Yakima-Pasco-Richland-Kennewick, WA |