Dish subscribers could lose WKBN, WYTV & Fox Youngstown tonight.

Attention Dish Network subscribers:

As of midnight tonight, Dish Network subscribers will no longer be able to view WKBN, WYTV or Fox Youngstown without an OTA antenna hooked up to your digital TV or a converter box hooked to your analog TV unless an agreement can be reached between New Vision and Dish Network. Over the past several months, WKBN has entered into good faith negotiations with the Dish Network, as well as numerous other cable and satellite providers, to discuss terms for the continued carriage of the WKBN signal.

WKBN HAS REACHED AN AGREEMENT WITH ALL OTHER CABLE AND SATELLITE PROVIDERS EXCEPT DISH.

As of now, it appears that the Dish Network is unwilling to negotiate further to prevent the loss of WKBN from your channel line-up.

What has led to this issue?

To serve viewers such as yourself, WKBN negotiates agreements with cable and satellite companies like Dish Network that deliver our signal to your home. WKBN closely monitors these companies since they are taking a signal, which WKBN provides for free over the air, and they then sell that signal, along with other networks, to paying customers.

Since companies like Dish make a profit off of the WKBN signal, WKBN asks for a small amount of compensation in return. What is being asked of Dish is no more and no less than what has been asked of all other cable and satellite providers. All other cable and satellite companies have found this to be a fair and reasonable amount and have reached an agreement with WKBN. So far, Dish is the only provider that refuses to come to terms.

Dish says WKBN is asking for a 200% increase, is that true?

While we are not at liberty to discuss the actual figures, please remember that an increase from 1 penny to 3 pennies is a 200% increase. WKBN is asking for pennies on the dollar compared to what the Dish Network pays for the hundreds of other channels on your channel line-up.

The high cost of subscription services cannot be attributed to local channels, but from companies like Dish paying high dollar amounts for countless cable channels you may rarely watch.

Wouldn’t it be nice to pick the channels you want to watch a-la-carte and only pay for those? Imagine how much less expensive your bill would be!

Dish says that they will have to raise the rate on my bill if they reach an agreement with you. Is this true?

We cannot speak for Dish, but if this were true, the inverse would be true as well. If WKBN is removed from their system on January 15, 2012, your monthly bill should go down. We feel it would be wrong for you to continue to pay for a channel which they no longer provide.

WKBN has reached a similar agreement with all other cable and satellite providers and to our knowledge, not a single one has publicly said they must raise their rates.

Who should I contact to voice my concerns about losing WKBN?

You can call the Dish Customer Service phone number: 1-800-894-9131

Let them know you do not want to lose WKBN! (Editors Note – The same message appears on the WKBN, WYTV and Fox Youngstown websites. I just posted the WKBN version here.)