Dish network drops Court TV

According to a commercial I saw on Court TV tonight. They are urging
people to call some number
and complain.

I don't have the Dish Network so its no big deal to me personally but I
would guess this is all
about money - somebody wants more and the other side says no.

stonej...

Here is the story:

No more Forensic Files or Catherine Crier Live for Dish subscribers.
Court TV disappeared from the satellite-TV provider's airwaves at 10
p.m. on Sunday after EchoStar's Dish Network and Court TV parent Turner
Broadcasting couldn't reach a renewal agreement.

This is the second consecutive year that Dish subscribers flipped on
their TV on New Year's Day to discover one fewer channel. Last year,
Dish blacked out Lifetime in a similar fee dispute. That acrimonious
tiff, which featured full-page newspaper ads, lasted a month.

Douglas County-based EchoStar, which has 13 million subscribers, claims
Turner is demanding a 70 percent increase in rates. EchoStar must
"protect our customers from unreasonable demands," said Eric Sahl,
Dish's senior vice president of programming. Turner Broadcasting is
owned by No. 2 U.S. cable operator Time Warner.

Turner countered that EchoStar is "unwilling to pay the standard
industry rate for a popular network that is currently ranked in the Top
20" and urged viewers to switch to cable or DirecTV.

Court TV, the gavel-to-gavel cable network that made cameras in the
courtroom commonplace, reaches 86 million households.

The network was jointly owned by Liberty Media and Time Warner until
May, when Liberty sold its 50 percent stake for $735 million.

Both sides indicated that they were continuing negotiations. In the
meantime, EchoStar is offering America's Top 120 and above subscribers
a free preview of Biography.

Anim8rFSK...

CourTV is popular? I loved it back when they showed trials, but hasn't
it been just bad LIFETIME women in jeopardy movie reruns for years?

stonej...

Not as much. "Cops" is shown several nights a week in back to back
episodes (sometimes
in two hour blocks).

Also "World's most shocking police chases" and similar kind of stuff.

Those are rather entertaining in a mindless way.

wdstarr...

They also run a fair amount of not-so-mindless true crime stuff,
e.g., "Forensic Files."

Anim8rFSK...

Ah. I gave up a long time ago. I found the trials and recaps
fascinating.