WRAL and FOX 50 are off the DISH Network lineup after contract dispute
WRAL and WRAZ FOX 50 have gone dark for DISH Network customers, after an extension in a contract negotiation expired Tuesday afternoon.
WRAL and FOX 50, both owned by Capitol Broadcasting Co., said in a news release that the stations were removed by DISH after “they refused to reach a fair agreement to carry our stations.”
Earlier this month, a contract dispute with DISH resulted in WNCN CBS 17, owned by Nexstar, going dark for nearly the entire month of December. That dispute was resolved last week, when Nexstar and DISH reached a multi-year agreement. Before then, the dispute had taken 164 local Nexstar stations off the air in 115 markets, including CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox network affiliates, plus WGN.
The dispute between DISH and Capitol Broadcasting is over retransmission, or carriage, fees. Carriers like Dish Network, AT&T and Charter (which owns Spectrum) pay cable networks and TV station owners a monthly license fee to carry their signals.
When the carriage contracts are up for negotiations, station owners typically want more money, and carriers don’t want to pay. Sometimes negotiations go smoothly and contracts are quickly renewed, and sometimes they don’t.
On Tuesday, Jimmy Goodmon, President and COO of Capitol Broadcasting, said in a news release that they are not being unreasonable in their requests.
“WRAL and FOX 50 are not pushing for things that are unreasonable,“ Goodmon said. “We are asking to be paid market rate for our programming so we can pay the affiliation fees required by NBC and FOX. This isn’t about greed, it’s about survival for our small, locally owned media company. Now, more than ever, local television news and original programming is a critical service to our community.”
A DISH network website devoted to explaining why disputes happen with networks and station owners said of the CBC dispute: “We have been working hard to get a fair deal, but unfortunately Capitol Broadcasting made the decision to remove their channels. We made a fair offer to keep their channels up, but they rejected it. We also offered to extend the current contract so viewers would not be impacted, but Capitol Broadcasting refused this as well.”
The statement from WRAL said that Capitol had extended their contract “multiple times to try to work it out.”
The station is pointing viewers to the website keepmylocalstations.com for updates.
How to watch WRAL or Fox without cable or satellite
Viewers can still get NBC and Fox programming with an over-the-air antenna, sold at big box stores such as Best Buy, Walmart and Target, and also from Amazon.
You can also stream local WRAL newscasts at their website or stream the newscasts live on Roku, AppleTV and Fire TV. To view via Roku, Apple TV or Fire TV, download the WRAL app on those devices.
This story was originally published December 29, 2020 at 5:27 PM.
