E.W. Scripps Co. said that it has reached a new retransmission conset agreement with Dish and that its local television stations are available to satellite customers after being blacked out since late July.
The dispute affected 60 stations and the agreement comes as football season is set to kick off.
Related: Scripps Stations Go Dark to Dish Subscribers
Financial terms were not disclosed.
“Scripps has reached an agreement with Dish, and all Scripps stations are back on the air for Dish subscribers. We apologize for the disruption in service our viewers experienced and thank them for their loyalty and patience through this period.,” the broadcaster said in a statement.
The blackout came after five months of contract extensions.
Dish, frequently involved in retransmission disputes, blamed Scripps for the impasse.
But on August 31, Scripps said that it had not asked for a 250% rate high and that the negotiation was not related to the cost of expanding its station footprint in 2019.
"Scripps is a fair and reasonable negotiator. This remains the only time in Scripps’ history that we have reached an impasse over a distribution agreement,” the broadcaster said.
Scripps said it was recommending that Dish customers in Scripps markets seek out a different pay-TV provider with college football and the NFL season approaching.
In response to Scripps statement, Dish said "We are fighting on behalf of our subscribers to keep costs as low as possible. Dish routinely completes deals with station owners while avoiding service interruptions for subscribers, and we have recently worked with several broadcasters to complete these kinds of deals. It’s disappointing that Scripps is using this blackout as a tactic to raise fees and restrict consumer choice."
