Dish Network and Time Warner have officially buried the hatchet, announcing a carriage deal for its Turner Broadcasting System cable networks and Home Box Office for the satellite giant’s 14 million customers.
Dish and Turner were briefly locked in a carriage battle back in October – eight networks, including CNN and Cartoon Network went dark temporarilyon Oct. 20, but returned in early November after the parties decided to extend carriage as they negotiated a new agreement. One of the biggest benefits of the extension at the time was that it avoided a blackout of Turner’s two biggest networks – TBS and TNT – which were set to expire on Dec. 5.
That extension, which ended last night, allowed Dish’s over-the-top service, Sling TV to carry the channels unencumbered since its launch in January and let the satellite TV service carry TBS and TNT through the early rounds of the “March Madness” NCAA Men’s College Basketball Tournament, which has attracted record ratings for the channels.
“Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting and HBO have successfully completed separate distribution agreements with Dish,” Time Warner said in a statement.” We’re pleased that the Dish customers we all serve can continue to enjoy Turner and HBO’s popular programming on multiple platforms.”
