(Bloomberg) -- When Dish satellite customers lost access to Fox TV channels in 17 markets on Thursday, the broadcaster was ready.
The Fox network began airing slick ads attacking Dish Network Corp. for the blackout and issued a cease-and-desist letter accusing the satellite provider of making false statements about their dispute.
The snarky commercials aired during Thursday Night Football on Fox, targeting Dish as the cause of a blackout that has also removed FS1, FS2, the Big 10 Network, Fox Soccer Plus and Fox Deportes from the Dish and Sling TV services. (Ironically, if Dish customers weren't able to see Fox, they probably also wouldn't know about the ads.)
The commercials depict TV customers struggling with their loss of Fox sports programming, using the phrase “Dish took it.”
Dish Group President Brian Neylon countered by accusing Fox of fearmongering.
“These are definitely prepackaged attacks on us and the viewers -- you don't carry out an immediate ad last night without some preplanning,” Neylon said. “We get cast in an unfair light because we are the ones that have the relationship with the consumer.”
Disputes between pay-TV providers and programmers like Fox have increased this year as the companies feud over retransmission fees -- the escalating sums that cable and satellite services pay to media giants for the channels they carry. In fact, Dish has a separate dispute with AT&T Inc.'s WarnerMedia that has kept HBO off its service for months -- an impasse that has contributed to an exodus of customers from the satellite company.
Even so, the clash with Fox has gotten nasty fast.
‘False and Misleading'
In a letter Thursday, Fox lawyers accused Dish of violating their agreement by pulling the channels before the contract expired. They also said the company was “issuing false and misleading statements” by saying Fox had chosen to yank its signals from the Dish and Sling TV services.
For its part, Dish has said that Fox is demanding a “double-digit” percentage increase in fees for its programming and wants the TV provider to bundle local channels with unrelated cable networks. During the blackout, Dish is recommending that customers use an over-the-air antenna or the NFL app to watch football games.
More broadly, the pay-TV industry is struggling with subscribers shifting to popular streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Dish, based in Englewood, Colorado, has see its subscriber base drop to about 12 million nationwide, down from more than 14 million.
“In general, retransmission fees have become a drug for broadcasters -- and the way to feed that is out of the pockets of consumers,” Dish's Neylon said. “We can't accept rate increases when there are viewership declines.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Scott Soshnick in New York at ssoshnick@bloomberg.net;Scott Moritz in New York at smoritz6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net, Rob Golum
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
Essential Business Intelligence, Continuous LIVE TV, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
