Community Broadcast Service, which operates WABI-TV (CBS) and WABI DT2 (CW), made a contract offer to the DISH Network on Friday afternoon to try to restore their stations on the satellite provider in time for the 1 p.m. Sunday NFL opener between the New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins, according to Mike Young, vice president and general manager of the Bangor stations.
WABI and DISH have been embroiled in a contract dispute that peaked on July 16 when the two stations were blacked out on the direct-broadcast satellite service provider. They are still blacked out.
There are about 29,000 DISH Network subscribers in the Bangor area and the surrounding counties, according to Young.
Young insisted that the once wide financial gap between the two sides has been reduced to “nickels and dimes, literally.”
WABI makes a monthly payment to CBS to purchase the programming and then resells the programming to cable TV and satellite providers.
“[Cable and satellite providers] pay us for the right to distribute our product from which they profit,” explained Young.
A confidentiality agreement forbids either side from commenting on the specific numbers, but DISH representatives called WABI-TVs financial demands unreasonable.
Young admitted he was skeptical about the chances for a resolution even though he said WABI has made a number of concessions.
“The optimist in me feels we can get it done, but based on several months of negotiating with the DISH Network, I think it’s highly unlikely it gets resolved any time soon,” he said.
Young said he hadn’t talked to a DISH representative in a month.
“Twenty-five days after DISH sent its most recent counter [offer], WABI responded today,” DISH Network spokeswoman Jenna McMullin said in an email on Friday. “We will respond in a timely manner.”
Young has taken about 1,800 phone calls from viewers over the dispute.
“At the end of the day, all we want is for our viewers to be able to watch us on their DISH Network,” he said. “It is very unfortunate they have to endure the pain of not being to watch us for over eight weeks now.”
McMullin cited a July news release when asked for information concerning the dispute.
The release stated that “WABI-TV has blocked DISH customers’ access to WABI-TV 5 (CBS) and WABI DT2 (CW).”
WABI blacked out its channels to use viewers as bargaining chips as it makes unreasonable demands on DISH and its customers, Steve Swain, DISH’s senior vice president of programming, added in the release
“We offered to keep the channels on while we try to reach a deal, but WABI refuses to put its viewers first,” he added.
DISH has not released information pertaining to the reason why negotiations broke off.
Young said DISH Network’s assertion that WABI was asking for six times more money than negotiated in the last contract five years ago is inaccurate.
“We actually asked for eight times more money,” he admitted.
But he pointed out that they have subsequently made significant concessions to DISH.
“The money we get from DISH and all the other satellite and cable providers doesn’t come close to paying for the NFL games, alone. Say nothing about the NCAA Basketball Tournament games and programming fees for CBS shows. We also have the operating costs of showing 59 half-hours of [local] news a week,” said Young, who also noted that CBS has an agreement to televise Southeastern Conference football games.
Another sticking point, he said, is DISH’s insistence on having the right to “exclude WABI from being aired in certain homes in certain counties that are now being served by WABI on DISH.”
Three of those counties are Kennebec, Knox and Lincoln, he explained.
One of the reasons DISH Network may want to oust WABI from its docket is because there is already a CBS affiliate, WGME CBS 13 of Portland, on the DISH Network.
But Young said WABI is the only CBS affiliate with a news bureau in the central Maine area of Augusta and Waterville.
“We’re actually the only station in the entire state that has a news bureau in central Maine,” said Young, who added that they also have a lot of broadcast equipment there.
He feels it is a very important region in the state for them and they generate valuable advertising revenue there.
“We are televising six regular season high school football games, and at least three of the teams that are involved are from that central Maine area,” said Young.
WABI-TV also will continue to televise the four state championship high school football games, he said.
WABI-TV and the DISH Network are no strangers to contract disputes.
In 2013, 53 stations in 36 markets were blacked out after a dispute between DISH and Raycom over retransmission fees. This year, 29 Hearst stations in 25 markets were blacked out after stalled negotiations with DISH.
WABI and DIRECTV endured a three-week blackout in 2012 as the result of a dispute.