Dish Reaches Agreement With Sinclair to Carry Local Channels

(Bloomberg) -- Dish Network Corp. reached an agreement to keep more than 100 Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. local television stations on the Dish TV network, about three months after the previous contract expired. 

The multiyear deal covers 144 local stations across 86 markets, the companies said in a statement Monday. In addition, the Tennis Channel will remain available on Dish TV and Sling TV. Their pact had expired Aug. 16.

“After several contract extensions, we have arrived at a fair agreement that benefits all parties, especially our customers,” Brian Neylon, Dish TV’s group president, said in the statement. 

Sinclair’s stations run a full gamut of network affiliations, including ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and the CW. The company also owns 21 regional sports-network brands. Sinclair was part of a group that bought the Tennis Channel in 2016 for $350 million.

The agreement does not include Dish carrying Sinclair’s local sports networks, which have been unavailable to those subscribers since July 2019. Sinclair’s $9.6 billion acquisition of the former Fox sports channels from Walt Disney Co. was financed with costly high-yield debt that fell to distressed levels as Sinclair struggled to strike distribution deals with TV providers and dealt with the pandemic’s disruptions to live sports.

Sinclair’s shares rose 2.5% at 9:50 a.m. in New York, while Dish advanced less than 1%.

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