Dish Network Corp. and Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. agreed to a short-term contract extension that would allow the satellite-TV provider to broadcast Sinclair’s stations as the two sides continued to negotiate a new retransmission agreement. The contract was set to expire at midnight Eastern time Saturday.
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“We are working hard to negotiate a new agreement with Dish Network and hope to be serving you as soon as possible”.
Dish wouldn’t say how long the extension is for – it was characterized only as “short-term” – but said the agreement will give its customers access to the channels as negotiations continue.
Dish Network told WSJ that a Sinclair blackout could be the “largest local channel blackout in retransmission consent history”.
Dish, based in Englewood, Colorado, had asked the FCC to block the blackout while the commission considered the complaint, and to require Sinclair to negotiate in good faith.
“We appreciate that we have mutually created time to try to find the right path to serve consumers”, said Warren Schlichting, Dish’s senior vice president of programming, in the statement.
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The agreement with Dish Network to carry stations which Sinclair Broadcast Group owns or provides services to may expire on August 15, 2015.
