Gray Media and DISH TV were unable to reach a renewal agreement, leading to multiple Nebraska TV stations being yanked off the air from the satellite and streaming TV provider Tuesday evening at 6 p.m.
Gray Media owns 10/11 (KOLN/KGIN) in Lincoln, which is the CBS affiliate for Lincoln and the Tri-Cities, KCWH-TV (The CW) in Lincoln, and KSNB out of Hastings, which serves are the NBC affiliate for both. Additionally, Gray Media owns KNOP-TV (NBC) in North Platte, WOWT (NBC) in Omaha, and KTIV (NBC) in Sioux City, Iowa.
Roughly the same message is on the TV station’s websites, asking listeners to call DISH at 800-333-3474 and ask that the Gray Media stations are returned to the lineup. Additionally, the stations remind viewers that you can access their channels for free via an antenna, and with other cable and satellite TV providers.
DISH TV, in a press release after the stations were taken off the lineup, claims that Gray Media chose to disconnect their stations after “DISH refused to accept unreasonable rate increases that would have raised monthly bills for consumers.”
“We offered a fair agreement to keep these stations on the air, but Gray Media walked away.” Kevin Covell, Senior Vice President for DISH Video Services, said in the press release. “Gray Media chose to black out their own viewers, rather than reasonably negotiate, in an attempt to extract significantly higher fees.”
Gray Media owns TV stations in 113 Television markets across the United States. Alongside the markets they own in Nebraska, Gray owns multiple stations in neighboring states, including Cedar Rapids, Colorado Springs, Kansas City, Sioux Falls, St. Louis, and Topeka.
KLKN-TV (ABC) based out of Lincoln, and NTV (ABC) based out of Axtell are unaffected and are still available on DISH-TV. KLKN is owned by Rincon Broadcasting, and NTV is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group.
