KUTV Channel 2 was drowning in phone calls from unhappy DISH Network subscribers on Tuesday, although the local CBS-owned station is simply caught in the middle of a battle between corporate giants.
DISH Network subscribers in Utah who tried to tune in Channel 2's top-rated morning newscast on Tuesday instead got a pre-recorded message from EchoStar Communications chief executive officer Charles Ergen in which he explained his side of an ongoing dispute with Viacom, CBS's parent company.
And the message urged local viewers to call KUTV.
Which didn't do subscribers any good for two reasons. First, Channel 2's lines were either busy or rang without being answered for much of the day. And second, nobody at KUTV can do anything about the situation.
"We're very sorry for the inconvenience," said Dave Phillips, KUTV's vice president and general manager. "This is an issue between Viacom and the DISH Network. We certainly hope it's resolved as fast as possible.
"And we just want to remind people that we provide a free, over-the-air signal. We would urge them to look up and find out what their local translator station is and tune it in."
In other words, viewers can hook up an antenna and tune in KUTV without DISH.
The dispute affects only DISH Network subscribers, who number 9 million nationally. A company spokesman said EchoStar would not reveal how many DISH Network subscribers it has in Utah, but it's in the tens of thousands.
In a conference aired on DISH late Tuesday, Ergen said the companies were negotiating and he hoped the impasse would end soon.
"We had more discussion today. I hope we can get your channels back," he said. "We'll work really hard, nights, weekends, whatever it takes."
EchoStar, based in Englewood, Colo., and Viacom have been battling for months over how much DISH Network will pay for the rights to Viacom's networks. EchoStar insists it's being gouged and told it must carry networks it doesn't want (specifically, the Nicktoons cartoon network); Viacom insists DISH Network is seeking terms better than those it reached with either Comcast Corp., the nation's largest cable provider, or DISH's satellite TV rival, DirecTV.
The DISH-Viacom contract expired Dec. 31. Since then, either because of mutual agreement or court order, DISH has continued to carry Viacom's networks. But the latest court order expired at 1 a.m. MST Tuesday, at which point DISH made the decision to drop local CBS stations in 16 markets across the country, including Utah, as well as 10 cable networks — BET, Comedy Central, MTV, MTV2, MTV Espaol, Nickelodeon, Nick Games & Sports, Noggin, VH1 and VH1 Classic.
EchoStar sued Viacom in January, claiming that tying carriage of its cable networks to the rights to carry its CBS stations violated antitrust laws — that Viacom "is leveraging its control of the public airwaves."
Ergen is telling subscribers, "DISH Network will always have a place for CBS, and we're willing to pay for retransmission rights, but Viacom is holding the public airwaves hostage, trying to extract concessions and higher rates on programming unrelated to CBS."
Viacom, for its part, disputes EchoStar's assertions. (And the fact is that all broadcast networks also own cable networks, which are always tied to negotiations like these.) Viacom took out a full-page ad in today's newspaper to air its side of the dispute, pointing out that DISH "recently hiked their subscribers' bills by as much as $3 a month. Yet they are unwilling to consider paying an additional six cents a month per subscriber for the right to carry our channels."
Ergen disputed the six-cent figure, saying, "We're not stupid here at DISH Network.
"If it were 6 cents per customer, we would have signed that deal and been happy to do so," he said.
Both sides are playing to DISH Network subscribers in an attempt to pressure the other. EchoStar is complaining of Viacom using "strong-arm tactics" and blaming its corporate rival for the interrupted signals. Viacom — which ran graphics over the weekend on its network urging DISH subscribers to call the satellite company — said it is "dismayed and disappointed by EchoStar's decision to pull the plug on our channels."
Essentially, the two corporate giants are playing a game of chicken to see who blinks first. In January, Viacom threatened to withhold its CBS telecast of the Super Bowl on Feb. 1, and EchoStar blinked. Now, with the NCAA men's basketball tournament just a week away, EchoStar is hoping Viacom blinks.
It's a big chance to take when viewers have other options — antennas, cable, DirecTV. And while DISH has announced it will provide a $1 monthly credit to customers in Utah and other markets where CBS-owned stations have been dropped, that's not likely to mollify angry subscribers. (DISH's lowest-priced programming package costs $24.99 per month.)
At KUTV Channel 2, they're just hoping the dispute ends and their phones stop ringing off the hook.
Contributing: Associated Press
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com