Sinclair, Dish Agree to Short Extension as Negotiations Over Carriage Continue

Dish and Sinclair have agreed to another short extension to their ongoing carriage deal negotiations for Sinclair-owned television stations and Tennis Channel. The latest extension runs through Oct. 21, according to a report from Sports Business Journal.

According to the SBJ report, there could be more extensions as the negotiations continue, however, those would likely be a week in length, also.

One major complication tied to the negotiations at this point is a ransomware attack that struck Sinclair’s systems over the weekend. According to SBJ, as of Monday afternoon, Sinclair employees were still not accessing internal systems — including email — as a result of the hacking attack.

The two sides had previously agreed to a pair of month-long extensions dating to late August as negotiations between the two sides have gone on. The two sides are apparently close to a deal that would involve carriage of Sinclair’s television stations as well as the Bally Sports regional sports networks, which have been off of Dish Network for more than two years.

Currently, the only way to stream Bally Sports RSNs without cable is with a subscription to DIRECTV STREAM “Choice Plan” ($84.99 a month). They are also not on Hulu, YouTube TV, or fuboTV.

Following the conclusion of the negotiations with Dish, Sinclair officials will then turn their attention to negotiations on a new deal for Charter’s Spectrum. The current deal between those two entities expires in March 2022.

Dish and Sinclair have been at odds over a new carriage agreement, one that has threatened to take Sinclair-owned CBS, FOX, NBC, and ABC affiliates along with Tennis Channel dark on Dish.

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. The RSNs have since been renamed with the Bally Sports moniker

In an unrelated negotiation, Dish customers have been dealing with the removal of 64 Tegna-owned television stations around the nation in connection with ongoing negotiations over a new carriage deal. On Monday, Dish filed a formal complaint with the Federal Communications Commission, alleging ‘bad faith’ negotiations by Tegna in connection with those talks. In a response to The Streamable, Tegna called Dish’s charges “utterly baseless and without merit.”

“Rather than engage in transparent PR stunts, DISH should return to the negotiating table in a serious fashion and get a deal done,” said a Tegna spokesperson on Monday afternoon.

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 prolonged 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 Network Affiliates