DISH Files Bad Faith Complaint Against Tegna

DISH to FCC: Tegna Failing to Negotiate in Good Faith, Making Unreasonable and Inconsistent Demands

Complaint comes after programmer stonewalls negotiations and removes local stations from DISH subscribers

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Oct 18, 2021, 11:01 ET

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Oct. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- DISH today filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) against Tegna Inc. after it removed its local stations from millions of DISH TV subscribers in 53 markets across the country.

"Tegna turned its back on its public interest obligation and failed to engage in good faith retransmission consent negotiations with DISH," said Andy LeCuyer, DISH SVP of Programming. "Tegna's demands were both unreasonable and inconsistent. This behavior negatively impacts DISH subscribers, and we expect Tegna's bad behavior to only get worse as the programmer looks to sell its stations to the highest bidder. As a result, we have filed a formal complaint with the FCC to address Tegna's blatant disregard of the Commission's rules."

The complaint outlines Tegna's bad faith actions during negotiations, including appearing to demand that DISH pay for all subscribers in a local market whether they purchase local programming from DISH or not, and appearing to demand that DISH pay for viewers who are no longer subscribers of DISH. Tegna's demands would have totaled nearly a billion dollars in fees.

DISH's complaint against Tegna Inc. can be found here.

About DISH
DISH Network Corporation is a connectivity company. Since 1980, it has served as a disruptive force, driving innovation and value on behalf of consumers. Through its subsidiaries, the company provides television entertainment and award-winning technology to millions of customers with its satellite DISH TV and streaming SLING TV services. In 2020, the company became a nationwide U.S. wireless carrier through the acquisition of Boost Mobile. DISH continues to innovate in wireless, building the nation's first cloud-native, Open RAN-based 5G broadband network. DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ:DISH) is a Fortune 200 company.

SOURCE DISH Network Corporation