After only 12 hours away from each other, Dish Network and CBS have worked out their differences and signed a new broadcasting deal. More importantly, the deal managed to put to bed any legal ramifications stemming from Dish’s ad skipping DVR service. From The Hollywood Reporter:
The two sides have negotiated for months, and after several short-term extensions, CBS programming was pulled from the satellite service on Friday night, causing millions of households in 18 markets to lose CBS-owned stations.
Dish announced that a deal had been made at 7:30 am EST on Saturday.
The deal covers CBS Sports Network, said to be one of the sources of the impasse, as well as other CBS-owned channels such as Smithsonian Channel, TVGN and Showtime. The agreement also covers retransmission consent for CBS owned stations across the country, from New York to California.
As part of the overall package, the two sides have also agreed to end the fight over AutoHop, which caused all of the major TV broadcasters to sue Dish for copyright infringement and breach of contract in May 2012.
In regards to the Hopper, it brings to end an issue that has been divisive since 2012. As part of this deal, Dish agreed to turn off their auto skipping feature for the first seven days of CBS broadcasts. This is much longer than the 3 days Dish was willing to give to Disney/ABC, so who knows if that will make a return to the negotiating table in the future.
No financial terms behind the deal have been disclosed yet, but you’d have to think it was something fairly sweet to end the standoff shortly after it began. I guess that just shows you the power of football and The Big Bang Theory, right?
(Via The Hollywood Reporter / Deadline)