Dish customers get CNN, Turner Classic channels back, CNN, Turner Classic Movies and a handful of other TV channels that have been blacked out for the past month on Dish Network have returned to the satellite TV service.
Dish and Turner Broadcasting, which licenses the channels for distribution to subscription services, announced Friday they have agreed to an extension of the previous carriage contract that will enable programming to return to Dish's 14 million customers. The companies also announced an extension of a separate contract that covers Turner channels TBS and TNT.
"Turner Broadcasting and Dish Network announced today that they have mutually decided to restore service of CNN, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, truTV, TCM, HLN, CNN en Español and Boomerang, and extend the carriage of TBS and TNT," the companies said in a statement.
The companies declined to comment further.
Turner pulled the channels from Dish's lineup in October, when its deal with the satellite service was set to expire, after the two companies were unable to negotiate new distribution terms. Friday's statement described the development merely as an extension, suggesting that the channels were restored to Dish while negotiations continue.
Programming blackouts, and the accompanying threats of such, have become a frequent occurrence in disputes between programming providers and subscription services. Dish customers avoided a midnight blackout of CBS TV stations Thursday when the satellite TV distributor and the TV network agreed to a short-term extension of their current contract. The potential blackout would have left Dish subscribers in 14 markets -- including New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco -- without access to the network's broadcasts. CNET is owned by CBS Corp.
