CBS GOES DARK ON DISH NETWORK

As of 4:pm Friday, millions of Dish Network customers lost CBS programming after the two media giants failed to agree on a new contract.

Negotiations, which went down to the wire, continued 24 hours beyond a Thursday deadline, but no agreement was ultimately met.

“Effective today at 7 p.m. Eastern Time, CBS programming is no longer available to Dish subscribers in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Dallas, Denver, Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh and several other markets,” CBS said in a statement. “CBS has been negotiating a carriage agreement with Dish for six months and has already granted two extensions. During this time, Dish has dragged its feet at our many attempts to negotiate in good faith.” h/t latimes

Los Angeles is Dish’s largest market with nearly 500,000 subscribers.

The blackout means that, as of Friday evening, Dish customers in the metropolitan Los Angeles region no longer receive the two CBS-owned stations — KCBS-TV Channel 2 and KCAL-TV Channel 9 — as part of their Dish programming packages.

CBS is the nation’s No. 1 network boasting such popular shows as “The Big Bang Theory” and “NCIS,” as well as college and professional football games.

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