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DEAL REACHED: Directv Customers may lose the Sinclair Stations Mar 1

25K views 213 replies 91 participants last post by  tonyd79 
#1 ·
Sinclair Broadcast Group recently began informing its viewers that it does not expect DirecTV to continue to carry any of Sinclair's stations after the existing carriage agreement terminates on February 28, 2013. Although DirecTV and Sinclair have been negotiating for quite some time in an effort to reach a new agreement, at this time it does not appear that these efforts will be successful. Although Sinclair does not believe that it is constructive to negotiate its private business relationships in public, Sinclair is informing the public in advance of the end of carriage because it is aware of the impact on a segment of the public from the end of the relationship between the Sinclair stations and DirecTV.

http://www.foxbaltimore.com/template/shared_content/dish/DirecTV_retrans_statement.pdf
 
#2 ·
While I always expect these things to be worked out I find it kind of sad that I hear about it from my mom because she saw it scroll across her Uverse. There wasnt the usual line in the guide talking about it It could potentially affect my NBC, FOX, and CW
 
#6 ·
What a joke Sinclair is as a broadcaster. Always fighting for more money, yet doing things on the cheap wherever possible. In Las Vegas, they have the CW/MY affiliates. All syndicated programming, such as King of Queens, Raymond, etc.. is in a letterbox format. They haven't found a way to broadcast the full HD versions yet? Cheap Cheap Cheap...
 
#7 ·
TheRatPatrol said:
They don't realize how much of a PITA it is to switch providers, especially if you're under contract.
The hilarious thing is those who didn't do any research on disputes and took the bait and jumped ship are likely under new contracts now.

It wasn't Sinclair, but another broadcaster had a dispute with Dish last year, told people to switch to DirecTV, only to get in a dispute with DirecTV 6 months later when their contract was up for renewal. You would think they would check for any future expiring contracts before referring them to another provider as it just makes them look even worse to the viewers.
 
#8 ·
I put this in the "confusing the customer" file:

"Alternatively, they
could negotiate to reduce the fees they pay for programming which is far less popular
than the programming provided by the Sinclair stations and for which, we believe they
pay disproportionately high prices as compared to the amount being requested by
Sinclair."

Longest... sentence...ever.
 
#10 ·
The silver lining for Rochester, NY is the fact that Sinclair is renowned as a tenacious combatant when negotiating. Therefore, Sinclair's recent purchase of WHAM might finally lead to a retransmission deal for 13.2, which is our CW.

I never thought I might root for the other side!
 
#21 ·
I knew there was going to be trouble when Sincliar purchased the local NBC station. Here in San Antonio, they own NBC, Fox, and CW affiliates. It Looks like they got us by the yang yang. None of my sets have an ACS tuner, and that includes my HD TV. I'm not sure if I could even get them over the air since, I have houses and trees in the line of site from my house. Trees everywhere.

I watch some reruns that I can do without on CW. But I will miss Peoples Court on Fox and Judge Judy on WOAI. That's about it from those channels. I care mostly about CBS since they carry most of the programs I like.
 
#22 ·
Looks like it's Fox local channel 17 here in central Iowa. I saw the notice while watching the opening of Bones.

Funny thing, I then hit 17-1 on my remote (HR20-700) and I got a stupid "Alert" Channel with D*'s answer to Sinclair...no Bones. I then went to the guide and saw they now have 2 17-1 channels: the first one is the ALERT and the second one is the "real" OTA channel.

Being I have three D* OTA boxes (one HR20-700 and two AM21s) that I can record from, I don't care whether anything is worked out with Sinclair or not.

My first reaction when seeing the message on 17 was: "great, another peeing contest between D* and a provider"...I'm sure this kind of stuff will continue, ad nauseum.

On a side note:

The local phone company dug a trench just outside our front yard and laid an optical cable a few months ago. I'll be interested to see what they are going to offer. I'm told they will have a very thick pipe and will provide a variant of "cable" and even higher speed internet access. All the receivers are ethernet based, no coax at all, DVR and MRV. I have no idea when it will be available or what it will cost. I will, however be keeping an eye on it.

Having been with D* since 1994 or 1995, I'm starting to think that putting that money into the local community might be a better way to go, if the service and equipment is any good at all and the cost is comparable or better.

The one thing that this has made very clear to me is that we aren't doing anything that might involve a contract with D* any more. It's gotten too expensive, the equipment is up and down in terms of performance, and I'm not betting a two year contract that it's really going to get any better.
 
#24 ·
I will be losing Fox and My TV out of Cape Girardeau. My wife is going to have a big problem with this and I can't even pick these channels OTA since we live too far from the tower. Looks like we are stuck if they can't work things out. I wonder if they will offer a substitute if it drags on?
 
#26 ·
Sounds like it may time to look at an AM21. Saw the message Sinclair put on the local Fox station and it is not worded in a way that gives much hope. If it was another station owner I would not be too worried but Sinclair is notorious for these disputes. I fully expect the stations to go off March 1st
 
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