Dish Network, Sinclair Broadcast agree on short-term TV contract extension

An agreement with Dish Network on carrying Sinclair Broadcasting Group stations (like KATU News) is set to expire on August 15, 2015.

If the new stand-off continues after the contract expires, Dish said Saturday, the result could be a black-out of 153 TV stations.

Meanwhile, Dish added that while the two parties continue to negotiate, it is asking the Federal Communications Commission to stay action on the complaint that the satellite-TV provider filed Saturday against Sinclair.

“We appreciate that we have mutually created time to try to find the right path to serve consumers”, Dish senior vice president of programming Warren Schlichting said in a statement.

Dish claims that Sinclair is insisting it be allowed to negotiate for 32 stations it does not own in markets where it had other stations. In the complaint, Dish had accused Sinclair of failing to negotiate in good faith on the retransmission contract.

Sinclair representatives could not be reached for comment.

Englewood, Colorado-based Dish, which has almost 14 million subscribers, didn’t specify the term of the extension.