On Friday, DISH notified the FCC and NBC-Universal of its intent to request arbitration related to issues swirling around a disagreement about renewed distribution of programming.

“This notice triggers a mandatory 10-day ‘cooling off period’ during which DISH and NBC-Universal can continue negotiating and affected programming is required to remain available to DISH customers,” the company said in a statement.

“If, at the end of the cooling off period, we have not reached an agreement with NBCU, we will have up to five days to formally request arbitration,” DISH reports. “In the event of arbitration, affected programming would remain available during that process, and for the foreseeable future.”

As reported last week, NBC-Universal warned DISH customers via the website makedishdeliver.com that its programming might go dark. DISH responded back by stating it expected to file for arbitration, which would prevent NBC from blacking out DISH customers.

“Should DISH proceed with arbitration we will of course participate in the process, and look forward to receiving the fair market value for our portfolio of networks,” an NBC-Universal spokesperson said on Wednesday.