Just in time for Christmas, Dish Network and Nexstar Media Group resolved a transport dispute that has kept 164 TV stations out of service from the satellite provider in the past three weeks and affected five million Dish subscribers.
The new deal was announced early Christmas morning (or late Christmas Eve, depending on the part of the day that you believe 1 am, Eastern time). In addition to restoring Nexstar stations to the Dish line, WGN America – a cable network entirely owned by Nexstar – is back in service. The network will also be added to Dish’s streaming service, Sling TV, in early 2021.
For several markets, the Nexstar being dropped from Dish’s service deprived subscribers to local over-the-air networks and the live sports coverage they provide. (You can see all Nexstar stations and markets here.)
Local channels owned by Nexstar are back at DISH. We are pleased to announce that DISH and Nexstar have reached a multi-year agreement and their local channel (s) have been restored. Thank you for your patience and support. pic.twitter.com/oWHC5T2pSK
– DISH Answers (@dish_answers) December 25, 2020
For example, Dish subscribers could not watch NBC in Tampa, while customers in Denver and Cleveland did not have Fox. All three are the top 20 TV markets. The markets in the top 40 affected also include Portland, Charlotte, St. Louis, Indianapolis, San Diego, Nashville and Las Vegas.
Related: Tegna’s 64 stations are back on DirecTV and U-Verse after dispute
In its announcement, Nexstar said it has reached more than 250 distribution agreements with satellite, cable, telecommunications and streaming partners in the past three months. With that, transportation is available to 90 percent of Nexstar’s coverage TV markets by 2022.
“We regret the inconvenience experienced by our viewers and look forward to providing them with a leading network and local programming again,” Nexstar told its customers at launch.
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