CBS threatened Tuesday to remove its owned and operated stations and Showtime from Dish Network (NASDAQ: DISH) if renewals for retransmission and carriage aren't completed by Thursday at 7 p.m. EST.
"For six months, CBS has been vigorously attempting to secure fair carriage deals with Dish," a CBS statement reads. "During that time, Dish has clearly not been operating with the same sense of urgency. In the last few weeks, we have granted two extensions, in the hopes that this would give both parties sufficient time to come to a resolution. The second extension, which protected Dish subscribers' programming over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, was the final one. We would very much like to avoid going dark, thereby joining the more than 120 stations Dish has dropped since 2013 alone. Unless agreements are reached, however, our viewers should be prepared to lose CBS from their Dish systems on Thursday evening at 7:00 PM/ET. For more information, Dish subscribers can go to www.keepcbs.com."
CBS is threatening to pull 29 CBS, CW, MyNetworkTV and independent stations off Dish in 17 markets. It's also threatening to black out Showtime and CBS Sports Network.
In a separate carriage impasse, Dish negotiated an temporary extension with Comcast to keep four regional sports networks on its service.
Related links:
Dish avoids Comcast RSN blackout, but another CBS extension is still pending
CBS and Dish still talking, sign another extension agreement
CBS gives 'short term extension' to Dish; satellite operator now in showdown with Comcast Sports, too
Dish sees third carriage tiff heat up as four more Comcast RSNs threaten to go dark
Dish, Turner forge extension; restores CNN, averts TNT, TBS blackouts
CBS gives 'short term extension' to Dish; satellite operator now in showdown with Comcast Sports, too