Dish and Disney talk over resuming contract for ESPN telecast

Dish's agreement to carry ESPN, the highest profile and most expensive of the national sports channels, the US expires at the end of September. Dish and ESPN's majority-owner Walt Disney Co are now in negotiations on a renewal for the agreement, which dates back to 2005.

The talks will also address the fees Dish must pay to carry Disney's other channels, including ABC broadcast stations. As a result, the negotiations will likely revolve around some of the pay-TV industry's most contentious issues—broadcast fees and sports costs—even more than Time Warner Cable Inc.'s battle with CBS Corp., which ended on 02nd sep 2013 after a month long blackout.

Charlie Ergen, chairman of Dish network last month already hinted at his willingness to use what some might see as the nuclear option—going without Disney's channels permanently. "Disney is not going to go out of business without Dish Network and vice versa," he told analysts on a conference call.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/international-news/item/3167-dish-and-disney-talk-over-resuming-contract-for-espn-telecast.htmlSource: http://cablequest.org/news/international-news/item/3167-dish-and-disney-talk-over-resuming-contract-for-espn-telecast.html