No deal means KPAX still blacked out

A satellite television battle continued into the weekend after Cordillera Communications, a midsized market TV company, rejected a short-term contract extension with Dish Network, effectively blacking out a local station for viewers subscribed to Dish.

The business dispute is over retransmission fees, the cost Cordillera charges Dish Network to retransmit its signal in the Cordillera markets.

While Dish Network has offered to pay the same rate in a short-term contract extension, Cordillera refused the offer, affecting KPAX-TV, a CBS affiliate owned by Cordillera, and six other Montana TV stations as well as stations in six other states.

Courtney Culpepper of Dish Network Corporation Communications was unable to say how many Montana viewers are affected. More than 13.9 million viewers subscribe to Dish Network.

The companies have criticized each other in public statements, despite confirmations that negotiations are still ongoing.

“With DISH willing to grant an extension and a retroactive true-up on rates, Cordillera had nothing to lose and consumers had everything to gain by leaving the channels up,” Warren Schlichting, Dish executive vice president of programming, said in a press release. “Instead, Cordillera is using innocent consumers as bargaining chips by blacking them out from a marquee sporting event, the NFL Wild Card playoffs and turning its back on its public interest obligations. Cordillera is running the same play it’s used with multiple major pay-TV providers in recent years.”

Dish Network was willing grant a short-term extension for Cordillera for the same rates until a new contract was negotiated. Cordillera declined the offer, leaving 18 channels in 11 markets across the U.S. in the dark. Cordillera hit a similar snag in early 2015 when negotiations with DirecTV left TV screens blank for 10 days in February.

The American Television Alliance, an industry coalition, has called for the Federal Communications Commission to reform regulations, cutting the ability for monopoly market owners such as Cordillera to black out consumer television screens in an effort to negotiate higher retransmission fees from providers such as Dish Network.

“These brass-knuckle tactics have no place in American society,” American Television Alliance national spokesman Trent Duffy said in a press release.

In a Thursday press statement, Cordillera President Terrance Hurley said, “Dish believes it is entitled to significantly better terms than its peers and has a consistent record of disputes with broadcasters.”

Bob Hermes, general manager of KPAX, said on Wednesday that he believes Cordillera will reach an agreement with Dish Network eventually, just as it did with DirecTV and Charter in previous negotiations.

Both Schlichting and Hurley have said their respective companies remain committed to completing a new agreement to get stations back on the air.

Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.