New Orleans’ Fox Station Goes Dark on Dish

By Mike Farrell -- Multichannel News, 2/6/2012 12:01:00 AM

Dish Network subscribers in the New Orleans market lost access to local Fox affiliate WVUE last Tuesday (Jan. 31), after the satellite-TV provider and the station could not reach a retransmission consent agreement.

According to Dish, WVUE, owned by Louisiana Media, has requested affiliate fee increases of as much as 300%, which the satellite giant has refused to pay.

“We are disappointed that Louisiana Media has chosen to be so unreasonable in its demands, as we know that a significant number of Dish customers in New Orleans enjoy their access to Fox programs,” Dish senior vice president of programming David Shull said in a statement.

On its website, WVUE acknowledged that its retransmissionconsent agreement with Dish expired on Jan. 31.

“We have been continuing negotiations with Dish in order to reach a fair agreement and to restore Dish’s carriage of WVUE,” the station said on its website.