Sinclair Broadcast Group granted Dish Network yet another extension in carriage negotiations for its TV stations and regional sports networks, pushing back the deadline to Oct. 28, a source familiar with both companies said Thursday.
Also Read: Sinclair Still Working To Restore Systems After Ransomware Attack
This is the fifth extension Sinclair has granted in the talks to renew its retransmission consent deal with Dish, which was originally scheduled to expire in mid-August. When a deal was not reached by that deadline, Sinclair, which also is negotiating carriage of its RSNs with Dish, extended the talks until mid-September, and again pushed them out to mid-October when the stalemate continued. On Oct. 15, Sinclair again extended the deadline to Oct. 21. According to sources, Sinclair has also had to divert its attention to a ransomware attack that has disrupted several of its stations, which may have caused delays in talks.
At risk are about 108 television stations owned and/or operated by Sinclair, the Tennis Channel and 16 regional sports networks owned by the broadcaster. Dish hasn’t carried the RSNs for at least two years -- it dropped them in 2019 when they were owned by Fox Sports. Sinclair has said getting those RSNs back on Dish could mean as much as $400 million in additional revenue.
