Dish Network said Thursday that Chambers Communications pulled its ABC affiliates in Bend, Eugene, Klamath Falls and Medford, Ore., from the satellite giant at 12:01 a.m. on Dec. 16 after the two could not reach an agreement.
Dish said in a statement that Chambers is demanding a 500% increase in rates and "unreasonable contract terms."
"To put that into perspective, that's like gasoline going from $3 to $18 per gallon overnight, which is unacceptable and irresponsible," Dish Senior Vice President of Programming Dave Shull said in a statement.
The satellite giant said it would continue to work diligently to bring Chambers back to the negotiating table and it's hopeful it can come to an agreement.
In a statement, Chambers said the agreement expired on Dec. 16, but disputed Dish's claims of exorbitant rate demands.
"The fact is that we're asking for an adjustment that amounts to less than a penny a day per subscriber a month to carry our local stations," Chambers President and COO Dana Siebert said in a statement. "These are signals that Dish turns around and charges their customers a dollar or more a month to receive. All we are asking of Dish is fair market value, something that every other major distributor of our signals has agreed to compensate."
Both Dish and Chambers added in statements that they are hopeful a fair agreement can be reached.
