Dish's Sinclair Complaint Echoes How Dish Itself Acts, Morgan Murphy Media Says
Dish’s complaints about Sinclair Broadcasting bargaining tactics are the pot calling the kettle black because Dish uses "precisely the same tactic," Morgan Murphy Media said in a filing in docket 10-71 posted Tuesday. Dish's retrans complaint, filed Saturday and then…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
put on hold as it resumed negotiations with Sinclair, said Sinclair rejected a short-term contract extension offer with a retroactive "true-up" (see 1508170031). Dish did essentially the same thing to Morgan Murphy in negotiations earlier this month, the broadcast chain said, declining to extend an agreement that would retroactively "true up" rates to the beginning of the contract term without "a substantial and unilateral reduction in its proposed rates," Morgan Murphy said. Since Aug. 13, Morgan Murphy stations have been blacked out on Dish. "If Sinclair is found to have violated its obligation to negotiate in good faith, the same finding should be applied to Dish," Morgan Murphy said. In a statement, Dish said Morgan Murphy "blocked Dish customers’ access to its stations in four markets, seeking above-market rate increases double the current Dish rate. The broadcaster has demanded higher fees than Dish currently pays for any other station nationwide. We are actively working to negotiate an agreement that promptly returns this content to Dish’s programming lineup."