On Thursday, Dish released a statement saying it endorsed Sinclair Broadcast Group, the National Association of Broadcasters, Antennas Direct and TVfreedom.org for their Broadcast TV Liberation Tour that looks to raise awareness of free over-the-air local TV.
“We have traveled to over 60 cities – large and small – across the country to bring the free local TV experience to thousands of Americans and have given away over $1 million in antennas,” Richard Schneider, president of Antennas Direct, says. “It’s refreshing to see all the smiling faces at each tour stop when they realize that all they need to watch their favorite broadcast programming is an HDTV antenna.”
Warren Schlichting, Dish EVP of marketing, programming and media sales, calls the project “smart.”
“The country’s 90 million pay TV customers, all of whom pay retransmission fees for local broadcast stations, are frustrated by rising costs and channel blackouts,” Schlichting says. “Complementing the pay TV experience, which includes the increasing adoption of streaming services like Sling TV, Sony Vue, Hulu and Netflix, is good business and may drive a solution to the otherwise compounding problem of ever-rising retransmission consent fees for local TV.”
Tribune Broadcasting blacked out its stations from Dish customers back in June. Dish says it has distributed $7 million worth of OTA antennas to affected customers this summer.
“Sinclair is on the right track for consumers and we’d encourage Tribune to follow its example,” Schlichting adds.
He also notes that Dish and Tribune continue to work on retransmission negotiations.
“Tribune is back at the table and we are making headway that I am hopeful will get these channels back to our customers soon,” Schlichting reports. “Regrettably, Tribune had stopped negotiating for five weeks, delaying a resolution. In the time since Tribune blacked out its stations, Dish has completed 10 local retransmission deals, one that covered more stations and more markets than Tribune. This can be done.”
