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Dish: Broadcaster power driving hundreds of blackouts, skyrocketing fees

Mar. 21, 2017 7:15 PM ETDISH Network Corporation (DISH) StockDISHBy: Jason Aycock, SA News Editor
  • Dish Network (DISH -1.9%) -- in the middle of a two-week-old blackout by Hearst Television affiliates -- is calling for "baseball-style" arbitration, complaining that the current method of retransmission negotiations is hurting the public.
  • Laws haven't changed since the current retrans consent regime was set up, but video has, argues Dish's Warren Schlichting in a letter to Silicon Valley Rep. Anna Eshoo.
  • He says consumers have seen more than 750 blackouts since 2010, and that retransmission consent fees demanded by broadcasters have risen 27,400% between 2005 and 2016.
  • “We agree that it is time for consumers to stop being treated as pawns,” Schlichting says in the letter. Hearst, meanwhile, has argued that "Dish has continued to insist on including material terms that are less favorable than our current agreement."

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