Hearst Blackout Shows 'Broken' System, Dish Network Says

The Hearst carriage disruption is evidence "the system is broken," said Dish Network Executive Vice President-Marketing, Programming and Media Sales Warren Schlichting in a video Thursday aimed at Hearst viewers. Dish said Hearst "won't budge" from its March 1 offer that would "double the price of their channels and make Hearst the highest paid local broadcaster on Dish." Dish also said it offered to accept the same contractual terms that ended a Hearst carriage disruption on DirecTV in January (see 1701030046). Thirty Hearst stations were no longer being carried on Dish as of earlier this month (see 1703030011). Earlier this week, Hearst's WBAL-TV Baltimore and other stations said they offered Dish a retransmission consent extension "in hopes of concluding a fair agreement that reflects the current marketplace." TV Freedom said there have been two weeks over the past three months in which Dish didn't see a disruption in carriage, and it has been involved in 58 percent of retrans impasses since January 2015.