If I remember correctly, one of the selling points of Dish Network in the past was that you would have access to all the local channels through Dish. Well, that’s not the case any more.
I was at a friends house the other day clicking through channels on their Dish Network when I noticed that KIDK Channel 3 had some weird infomercial-like ad running.
The ad turned out to be an informational “service” provided by Dish Network explaining why Channel 3 was no longer available through Dish Network. They were very degrading to KIDK in the process, saying something like KIDK do not respect you as viewers, and saying KIDK is demanding “unreasonable contract terms”.
They are using strong-arm tactics in the process, including providing the names and telephone numbers of the KIDK related decision makers, and encouraging viewers to call them to express their discontent that Dish Network has dropped channel 3.
I actually saw Dish Network do this once before when I had their service. They did it with the Hallmark channel. They discontinued the Hallmark service and started to smear Hallmark saying Hallmark was being unreasonable in their contract renewal terms, and giving names and phone numbers of people at Hallmark to call.
The truth is that a negotiation is a negotiation – there needs to be give and take on both sides. Dish Network, however, is great at playing hardball. They know they have the communication medium, and once they cut off the TV channel, they are the only ones who have direct access to communicating the message or “version” of the story.
If the negotiations are not going well, fine, they aren’t going well. If they don’t come to an agreement, OK. Life goes on. But Dish Network should not be out trying to smear a respected local tv station in the process.
Based on my research, it looks like KIDK is asking for four cents per customer per month (this was previously at 2.2 cents per customer per month). Dish Network currently collects $5.00 per customer per month for the 6 local channels they provide.
Island Park News reported that KIDK said: “It’s a very unfortunate circumstance but we’ve gone out of our way to try to not have that happen. Our company has offered extensions and so forth to Dish.” It looks like Dish Network has declined those extensions.
Dish has said they are offering “free” the Hallmark Channel for now due to the discontinuation of KIDK. My response would be “no thanks”. Why not just take up KIDK on their offer. Apparently it is a better tactic to put pressure on KIDK with a one-sided infomercial smear than give customers the programming they want while they work out their differences.
I’d bet this is not the only two times they’ve done this. I’ll bet they have a history of attacking those they are negotiating with in circumstances such as these.
Has anyone else seen Dish Network do something similar? Please share in your comments below.
If you are upset with Dish Network dropping KIDK, or are upset about their tactics, go ahead and call Dish network at their corporate headquarters: 303-723-1000 Ask for the office or the voice mail of CEO Charlie Ergen or Executive Vice President Jim DeFranco (both featured on the Dish Network’s Channel 3 infomercial) or any other executive you can get to. You’ll need to call during regular business hours.
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Gato got runned over by Marcus many moons ago. Be ye daft, 2486? 
Let's have a new poll, alright, Joe?
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{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
I heard the other day that this is not only happening locally with KIDK, but in other areas with their local channels also.
I think DISH has horrible customer relations. When my brother passed away, I tried to do the right thing by contacting everyone and getting a final bill from them. When I contacted DISH, I was told that my brother had signed a contract with them for a year and he was legally bound to fulfill the contract. I explained that he had passed away and could not fulfill the contract. They tried to tell me that death did not negate his contract. However, they were very quick to send someone out to pick up all their equipment. Since he had to provide them with a credit card when he signed up with them, they billed his credit card for the total amount they felt he owed. The credit card company was very understanding and helpful, and credited his account back showing that the obligation had been met after they found out we were not going to probate his estate.
I contacted DISH locally and nationally. The higher up the chain I went, the ruder they became. I finally told them good luck, my brother was dead, and what were they going to do to his credit report. I vowed then that I would never have DISH in my home and would badmouth them to everyone I came in contact with.
I had more luck with E-Mailing DISH than I did with phone calls, because I then had a written copy of my letter plus their reply. This was the first time that I knew that the people you talk with when you phone them use false names so that when you call back and ask to speak to the person you had been talking to, there didn’t seem to be such a person.
Thanks for letting me vent my frustration with DISH again.
I love DISH, never had a problem with them
Herb, I’m glad that you love DISH, and hope that you never do have a problem with them.
Idaho Native, I’m sorry to hear about the death of your brother and do hope you and all of your family are finding comfort from one another. Thanks for letting us know about your nightmare like experiences with Dish Network.
I’ve considered giving their network a try but after hearing of the inhumane way they treated your brother, you and your family, I’d do without television and internet before paying them a single cent.
When my father died, last year, I canceled several of his home services like AOL and some contract services. None of them hassled me. All of them gave me their condolences. Some of their business policies required that I send them a death certificate and I did. Yes, it was time consuming and that time was additional weight added to the emotional pain. But it had to be done and the businesses were fair.
Obviously, Dish Network is not a fair business and takes advantage of people during their most vulnerable times. I’ll never be a customer of that “business.”
I know someone in Seattle who has told me Dish is fighting with ABC there and has dropped them.
They didn’t drop KIDK, they dropped Fisher Broadcasting, who owns KIDK as well as KOMO in Seattle and several other stations in the pacific northwest and California.
It seems to me it was Fisher (the parent company) that opted to pull programming, technically speaking. They wanted to renegotiate the contract, and whether it is a reasonable increase or not, if DISH is unwilling to negotiate, that’s their prerogative. By no means is this a matter of some huge corporation strong-arming some small, local television station. Fisher Pathways is a large business capable of making its own choices without being strong-armed.
If anyone is upset, they probably should look into getting KIDK through another provider, or/and do as it sounds like DISH suggests, and write or call to complain to either KIDK or Fisher executives.
OR…this is just a thought…get an antennae and set up your tv to switch to the FREE local channels…It’s just a thought, but why exactly, outside of sheer greed, does a station that makes the bulk of its money from ads and provides its signal at no charge…what does a station like that need an *increase* in how much it’s paid per customer for?
<..> O.o It seems to me that it might just be Fisher that’s being unreasonable, given that little bit of information.
As for “smear” campaigns…
http://www.kidk.com/news/36476769.html
I note that KIDK appears to have made no attempt to contact DISH representatives for comment. Instead, they spoke to their own representatives (surprise) and talked in a very positive manner with DISH’s (only?) competitor. One of these two things is supposed to report news in an objective manner, the other is simply a company which by no means has to show KIDK and by what I’ve been able to find, has done a better job of informing viewers what’s going on than KIDK has.
Both are businesses, plainly and simply, and it is each’s choice to encourage viewers to do as suits them – KIDK is by no means the first station to use its news programming to its own advantage, whether ethical or not (it’s not, in case that’s not clear…), and DISH doesn’t even have to worry about reporting anything objectively to begin with and are otherwise fully within their “rights” to push their own agenda.
Neither party is innocent in this…except maybe KIDK, except for that whole objectivity thing.
ALL of that said, by the way, DISH really does sounds like a bunch of bastards.
I hope I can use that word here…
Why would you people, as consumers of said product, bother to pay the extra 5 dollars a month for local channels when you can go to Walmart and for anywhere from 15 to 40 bucks purchase some rabbit ears (or amplified rabbit ears) to pick up the local stations over the air. Once you hook it up, it’s but a click of the remote to access the local channels for free. I think everyone who lives in town should do this. Thats just my opinion, but it makes good common & economical sense.
Re:#9
In less than a month you won’t have that option unless you also buy a converter box.
You don’t need a converter box if you have an HDTV. I got rid of my cable service last year because I don’t watch very much tv and the local channels come in excellent with rabbit ears. I actually get a cleaner high defintion signal using rabbit ears as opposed to cable or satellite because the signal isn’t compressed.
I get 12 channels altogether. 3.1, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 8.1, 8.2, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 15 & 31. The only channels that don’t come in very well and the ones I’ll probably loose come February are 15 & 31. (The WB & Fox) All the other channels come in crystal clear. They’ve done the “digital test” twice now and both times my tv passed the test.
All your newer tv sets that come with digital tuners will be fine without a converter box. You only need a converter box if you have an older tv set and you don’t subscribe to cable ro satellite.
You don’t need a converter box, rabbit ears, satellite or cable if you just don’t watch television altogether. Every time I flip through channels at the homes of folks who have TV services in the house, I realize I’m not missing a thing.
That’s your opinion and I can respect that. Yet there are millions of people around the world who have the opposite opinion. Sure there’s a lot of garbage on tv, but there’s also a lot of good programming. If there wasn’t, tv wouldn’t be around would it?
I made a choice not to waste the money each month on cable or satellite service because I rent more movies than watch tv. But there are a few shows that I do enjoy as well as having the news & weather available. When there’s nothing worth watching I’ll read a book.
We didn’t have a tv in our house when I was growing up and we all survived just fine. Sure, it sucked sometimes, but my brothers and I found other things to do with our time.
To this day I know a few people that don’t have tv’s
I have also found that these people end up spending more time online than what they would normally spend watching tv. So to each his/her own.
We all have our own preferences when it comes to entertainment and sources to the outside world. When it’s all said and done, it’s nice to have so many options available to choose from.
No TV service here – I usually end up streaming my TV/Movies to my XBOX. http://www.hulu.com/ is great, as well as major network websites.
I can’t afford the $50/mo for a service that ultimately sucks the life out of my family.
You paint a tale here that Fisher is being ramrodded by a big evil corporation (Dish Network). Fact is: Fisher’s CEO Colleen Brown drew a ridiculous line in the sand during negotiations and Dish called her bluff. And who pays the price for her bravado and stupidity? The local affiliate (in this case KIDK) and what viewers they have left. True, both Fisher AND Dish are culpable to a degree but I agree with a previous poster: Hook up the rabbit ears if you must have KIDK. My family did so and we’ve found a real cache of quality programs on PBS in digital that we really enjoy.
Again, Fisher’s upper management continue to wreak havoc from their ivory tower in Seattle on our communities through their incompetent decision making.
I agree FisherInsider. Those 4 PBS digital channels are awesome. Everything from NOVA Science programs to Idaho Nature & Wildlife pieces, to Independent films & documentaries to cooking & home improvement shows. The best part is, their all commercial free.
You can’t get these channels via cable or satellite. (not that I’m aware of at least)
you don’t have to pay the 5 bucks to dish! on the back of most dish network boxes there is an input for an off air antenna. if you have a box try and dust off some rabit ears or plug in your old roof antenna if you still have one up there…..you have to then get into your setup menu and tell the box to use the antenna. everybox is different, and you can call DISH customer support to walk you through it. Then if you live in the snake river plain you can get most of the off air digital channels with your dish box! Even if you don’t live in the plain, you should try anyways because you may live near a repeater station….( right now if you live in the Snake Plain with a good antenna you should get around 12 digital channels, you may have to rescan while holding your rabbit ears to pick up all the channels)
And now, 10 Fisher stations including KIDK are back on DISH.
Nobody won in this battle.
Hey – you’re right! I didn’t know they were back on until I read your post Marcus.
Great, now every time my mom calls and says “you have to watch Dr. Phil today because he’s talking about xxx” — I can’t use the excuse anymore I don’t have that channel!
Yep, they came back on this morning / late last night.
Im sorry but i think kidk channel 3 personel are very rude i emailed them about something i had seen on the news and wanted to know if they could give me some info on it and all i got backwas a very rude email
who blinked? fisher or dish?
sandy-Who did you get a response from?