Dish Network customers with local-network stations from outside their communities are beginning to see some of their channels go black.
Charlie Ergen, co-founder and chairman of EchoStar Communications, which operates Dish, told Satelliteguys.us, a website devoted to satellite TV, that the signals were being turned off randomly and that Douglas County-based EchoStar is working to resolve the problem.
“As you know, on Oct. 20, 2006, a district court judge issued an order rejecting the joint settlement agreement between EchoStar and broadcasters and entered a permanent injunction requiring us to shut off ‘distant network’ channels to all customers by Dec. 1, 2006,” Ergen wrote in a letter to retailers posted on Satelliteguys.us. “As a result we must start turning off customers daily over the next 30 days to meet the Dec. 1 date.”
About 800,000 of the company’s 12.5 million customers receive distant signals, paying up to $5 a month for that service.
Ergen, who could not be reached Thursday, told the website that customers in Pennsylvania, Vermont, Arkansas, Hawaii, Kentucky, Tennessee, Oregon, Montana and Utah “will be most affected by this shutoff.”
Bob Wilson, of Trenton, Tenn., about 120 miles from Memphis, said he left a message with one of his U.S. senators, but he doubts he’ll get back his West Coast-based CBS and Fox stations, which went black Tuesday.
“I went to set up TiVo for (David) Letterman. I got a special message with nonstop prerecorded information,” he said. “I’m thinking about canceling because I’m fed up with the whole issue.”
In his discussion with Satelliteguys.us, Ergen urged his customers to complain to politicians.
He was trying to make sure subscribers called in their complaints, and not just e-mail them in, Scott Greczkoski, operator of Satelliteguys.us, told The Denver Post on Thursday.
“Senators are not going to see e-mails but will respond to calls,” Greczkoski said. “Charlie thinks that if they get 15 to 20 notes, it’s good timing right before the elections. It might heat things up.”
Distant network channels are ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox broadcast channels that originate outside a customer’s local community. Customers must be unable to receive their local stations using an off-air antenna to qualify for distant network stations.
Distant networks differ from local network channels, which customers receive from their local markets. For instance, Dish Network subscribers in Denver who pay for local Denver channels will not lose their service.
EchoStar spokeswoman Kathie Gonzalez said that Congress could pass legislation “protecting consumers” or “clarify statutory language” regarding distant network signals.
Staff writer Kimberly S. Johnson can be reached at 303-954-1088 or kjohnson@denverpost.com.
