CBS Charges Dish Network With “Dragging Its Feet” In Carriage Talks, CBS just turned up the heat on Dish Network as the companies negotiate an extension of the broadcaster’s carriage agreement. “Dish has been deliberately dragging its feet for months,” CBS says in a statement aimed at its customers. With the deadline approaching “Dish appears willing to drop the most popular programming in its entire channel lineup because it won’t negotiate the same sort of deal that other cable, satellite and telco companies have struck with CBS.”
The broadcaster adds that “Not reaching agreements is nothing new for Dish. In fact, Dish has dropped more than 120 stations since 2013 alone, whereas CBS has only had one service disruption” — its infamous showdown with Time Warner Cable.
Late last week CBS began warning Dish subscribers that the No. 2 satellite company “may drop” the network-owned stations in 14 cities including Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Detroit. Dish says at the time that “only CBS can force a blackout of its channels” and that it is “actively working to reach a deal before the contract expires… We are unsure why CBS decided to involve customers in the contract negotiation process at a point when there is time for the two parties to reach a mutually beneficial deal.”
