Dish Network and Cox Media Group say they've finally resolved a broadcast retransmission standoff that has kept Cox stations in nine markets off the satellite TV platform since November 2022.
"Dish and CMG greatly appreciate the patience of their subscribers and viewers," reads a brief statement jointly released by the two companies over the weekend.
The dispute affected Cox stations in Atlanta; Boston; Charlotte, North Carolina; Dayton, Ohio; Eugene, Oregon; Jacksonville and Orlando, Florida; Pittsburgh; and Seattle. Cox Media Group is controlled by Apollo Global Management.
Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, of course, but it’s said to be a multiyear renewal.
The impasse prompted Charlie Ergen, chairman of Dish parent EchoStar, to blithely compare the broadcast TV station business to the dying newspaper industry in a discussion with equity analysts in February of last year.
“The high-value shows are all going to OTT,” Ergen said, noting that even broadcast TV’s most productive remaining content, NFL games, can now be found on platforms like Amazon Prime Video.
“Viewers of Cox channels are not coming back for their local news,” he said. “They’re watching something on HBO or Netflix. And any customer who wanted Cox from us has left Dish already.”
Dish lost 945,000 subscribers across its Dish satellite TV and Sling TV vMVPD pay TV product lines last year.
