WTTV4 WB from Indianapolis official response.

I sent WB4 an e-mail about a couple weeks ago. I will say that I have edited out who sent the message and one paragraph that is likely to draw too much in negative comments because it goes even more into being negative (if you want to know what that paragraph said, I can e-mail it to you with the request to keep it personal). And here is the response (Paragraphs were run together like this in the e-mail I received):


We are still negotiating with DISH Network but the ball is in their
court. We have an agreement with DirecTV but DISH doesn't want to agree to the same terms. The satellite companies specifically charge
subscribers to have the local stations. This money goes right into the
satellite companies pockets and the local stations don't see any of it.
We pay a lot of money to acquire the rights to our sports franchises and
other syndicated programming. Is it really fair for them to charge and
make money from the programming we provide and pay a great deal of money for and not compensate the stations? They pay other programming services but not the local stations.
We know that WTTV is the most requested station to be carried by the
satellite companies and DirecTV saw the value in having us on their
system. DISH has yet to realize just how much of an impact our station
has in this state.
***Paragraph deleted
***Signature deleted

If this is the tone Channel 4 is having and we all know what Charlie's opinion is of this matter ("WTTV 4 is asking for too much money"), I seriously doubt you will ever see the channel on Dish. I hope Im wrong, but I do not see WTTV 4 giving in and I do not see Dish giving in too (I wonder what a merger would being forth. You might not be able to see TTV-4 if there was a merger too if the 2 sides are still like this). I do agree with the response on one thing: Channel 4 is a channel that has such an impact in Indiana. WTTV 4 has made sure that the sports programming is their top priority. Afterall, Indiana is a big basketball state. People here worship basketball. The fact is that DirecTV having WTTV-4 will alone sell a lot of DirecTVs here in Indiana. I know of 20 people that will be buying a DirecTV (and some will be dropping their Dish for DirecTV) on the basis that Channel 4 is on DirecTV.

I know that its disappointing for some Dish subs in the Indianapolis area not to have TTV-4, but this will mean that youd have to either get DirecTV or lifeline cable to get the channel.

Yes, but I also know several people (as I work in the heart of IU country and work for them) that on principal will not be viewing WTTV. But we will have to see how things work out.

I do know that with costs of getting the signals back to DISH (if they are using a fiber feed), and DISH carrying the current number of channels, DISH needs about 6,000 local subs in the area to reach a break even.

WTTV4 makes ad revenue from every potential viewer in their DMA. They are already making money on their viewers. They seem to have a problem with their accounted viewers actually being able to see their advertising. They also seem to assume all of the locals charges are pure profit, not accounting for the huge investment required to actually deliver the channels to the viewers. I could understand if both companies didn't have huge debts and were making profits.

What a load of crap WTTV's response is. "Money that goes right into the satellite comapany's pocket"? Okay...Let's do it this way...WTTV, Dish will pay what you ask if you pay the specific POP, Backhaul and uplink costs that Dish incurs in order to carry the signal to YOUR viewers.

BTW, Ad revenues of a broadcast channel are determined by how many REAL and ACTUAL viewers the station has as determined by Nielsen Ratings. The problem is that satellite viewers are not counted in the Nielsen ratings yet.

See ya
Tony