Dish Network has finally renewed its carriage agreement with Sinclair to keep the company’s 144 broadcast television channels for its satellite subscribers.
The new agreement puts to rest a dispute that has lasted approximately three months. The deal also brings back the Tennis Channel on Dish TV and Sling TV, but today’s announcement notably excluded any mention of Sinclair’s Bally Sports regional sports networks (RSN).
"We are pleased to have reached a multi-year agreement with Sinclair after months of negotiations," said Brian Neylon, group president at Dish TV, in a statement. "Sinclair has been a good long-term partner to work with. Both sides have been committed to keeping our customers top of mind and not putting them in the middle of our negotiations. After several contract extensions, we have arrived at a fair agreement that benefits all parties, especially our customers."
"Our agreement with Dish reflects the continued importance that distributors place on local and national broadcast content. We look forward to continuing to provide Dish viewers with the high-quality and highly desired entertainment, and timely local news that they depend on every day,” said William Bell, Sinclair's head of distribution and network relations, in a statement.
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Dish Network dropped the Bally Sports channels in July 2019, back when they were still named Fox Sports and still owned by Disney, which acquired them as part of its deal for Fox’s entertainment and studio assets. In August 2019, Sinclair closed its $9.6 billion deal for the 21 RSNs.
Since then, Sinclair has seen its RSN business take major losses and lose carriage on YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV.
Sinclair is pushing forward with a plan to offer its live sports rights through a direct-to-consumer app that it’s working on launching next year. The company has received pushback from leagues—MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred last month claimed that Sinclair doesn’t have the rights for such a streaming product. But Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley has remained adamant about his company’s streaming plans, saying last week that Sinclair has “critical mass in terms of rights to launch a product and that’s what we intend to do.”