As the deadline to renegotiate carriage fees passed without a deal in place, Fox pulled FX, National Geographic and 19 regional sports networks from Dish Network at midnight Friday.
The dispute between Fox and Dish is just the latest in a long list of retransmission battles between satellite and cable providers and content creators.
Over the past year, disagreements over the terms of these fees have played out in the public eye — pitting companies such as Disney, AT&T, Cablevision and Rainbow Media against one another, and threatening viewers with the blackout fo favorite stations.
In a harshly worded statement, Dish termed Fox's rate increase demands "unprecedented," and the company's senior vice president of programming, Dave Shull, is quoted in the release as saying "Fox has a long history of trying to shake down pay TV providers."
"Dish Network is not going to allow Fox or any programmer to bully our customers into paying such an unconscionable price increase," said Shull.
The move by Fox does not affect Fox News, Fox Business or local stations — at least for now. Fox's deals with Dish for its broadcast stations expire Nov. 1.
Dish Network has rouglhy 14 million subscribers.
"At midnight on Sept. 30, Dish Network decided to no longer carry Fox Networks cable programming," Fox said in a statement. "The proposal we've offered Dish is fair and in line with the tremendous value we provide. We regret the inconvenience to our viewers, but Dish has asserted its subscribers do not value our channels and has made a decision to go forward without them."
The move follows other recent battles involving other providers including a Disney-Time Warner feud that went down to the wire last month.
Just as in that dispute,Fox and Dish have set up dueling websites where they have been pleading their respective cases to Dish subscribers.
