Firms reach TV deal

Dish Network and Tribune Media agree on carriage contract, ending a nearly three-month blackout.

Satellite TV giant Dish Network and television station owner Tribune Media reached an agreement Saturday to end a nearly threemonth standoff that left millions of viewers in the U.S. without a favorite local TV station.

The two companies said signals of Tribune’s 42 television stations — including KTLA-TV Channel 5 in Los Angeles — would be restored to Dish customers. Tribune stations were knocked off Dish on June 12 in the bitter dispute over fees.

Dish’s largest market is the L.A. region, where the company serves nearly 500,000 subscriber homes.

The distribution spat spawned a lawsuit and attracted the attention of the Federal Communications Commission. Tribune is one of the largest TV station groups in the U.S., and viewers in some cities, such as Indianapolis, had been growing anxious about the prospect of starting a new NFL season without access to a key TV station.

With an agreement in place, signals of the 42 Tribune stations were expected to be restored on Dish systems late Saturday, according to Tribune spokesman Gary Weitman. In addition, Dish’s more than 13.5 million customers will regain access to the Tribune cable channel, WGN America.

Financial terms of the new carriage deal were not disclosed.

“We want to thank our viewers and customers for their patience and support as we worked through this lengthy process,” the two companies said in a joint statement. “We’re pleased to move forward and again be able to provide the content of Tribune’s local stations and WGN America for years to come.”

The breakthrough came a day after Charter Communications reached a separate arrangement with Tribune to simulcast the last Dodgers baseball games called by Hall of Fame announcer Vin Scully on KTLA. Six regular-season Dodgers games in late September and early October will be carried on the broadcast station as well as cable channel SportsNet LA.

That deal was fashioned to allow thousands of Los Angeles viewers, who do not have access to the team-owned cable channel, to see Scully wrap up his 67-year career with the Dodgers. Some Dish customers had expressed concern that, because of the Tribune outage, they might not be able to witness Scully’s final games.

Until last year, the Los Angeles Times was part of Tribune Co. However, The Times is now part of a separate corporate entity.

‘We want to thank our viewers and customers for their patience and support as we worked through this lengthy process.’ — Dish Network and Tribune Media