Fox News ratings plummet as Dish Network blackout continues.

Courtesy of International Business Times:  

The nasty carriage dispute that has left about 14 million satellite-TV subscribers without Fox News Channel is rearing its ugly head in the worst of places. The cable news network, typically a ratings powerhouse, saw a significant dip in viewership last week as its parent company, 21st Century Fox Inc., squabbled with Dish Network Corp. over programming fees. 

For the week ended Dec. 28, the first full week since the blackout began, Fox News averaged 939,000 prime-time viewers. That’s down from 1.65 million viewers the previous week and 1.68 million the week before that, according to data from Nielsen Media. 

Viewership for news programming is often unpredictable from week to week, and Christmas week tends to be a slow news period. But Fox’s prime-time ratings are down almost 12 percent when compared to the same week last year, when it averaged 1.06 million viewers. That makes sense: Dish Network has a market share of about 13.4 percent of the pay-TV industry. 

Fox News viewership is also down in the key 25-54 demo, though not as drastically. The network averaged 160,000 weekly viewers in the demo, compared to 175,000 for the same week last year.

Gee it looks like somebody better come to the negotiation table with hat in hand, and possibly on bended knee.

Though I have to admit I would REALLY like it if Dish just kept them off indefinitely.

Perhaps if that happened other cable outlets would follow suit.

The Dish Network enters its second week of Fox News free satellite TV. Okay now I'm jealous.

Courtesy of Raw Story:

Dish Network subscribers who are fans on Fox News’ “fair and balanced” reporting are entering the second week of not being able to watch their favorite Fox hosts, as the war between the network and the cable provider shows no sign of letting up. 

Dish Network pulled the plug on both Fox News and the Fox Business Network on Dec. 20, after the two sides could not agree on a new contract, with Dish claiming Fox was using their popular news shows as leverage to overcharge for other Fox programming the provider was less interested in. 

The resulting blackout led Fox to unleash their loyal viewers on Dish, via Facebook, with threats of cancellation unless Fox News was made available to Dish’s 13 million subscribers again.

In response the CEO of Dish has accused Fox of extortion, which sounds just like something they would do actually.

In the meantime Dish subscribers are getting completely away from conservative conspiracy theories and misinformation as they have replaced Fox News with Glenn Beck's crazy ass network The Blaze.

Yeah, I'm not sure that's any actually better.

The Dish Network drops Fox programs after price negotiations fall through. Oh please let this be a trend!

Courtesy of CNET: 

Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network were pulled from Dish Network's channel lineup late Saturday after negotiations for a new distribution deal broke down. 

Dish, which has for weeks been negotiating a new carriage contract for the 21st Century Fox channels, said the channels were blocked after Fox introduced fee increases for other sports and information channels not part of the original contract. The channels' removal marks the third major blackout to hit Dish subscribers in recent months. 

"It's like we're about to close on a house and the realtor is trying to make us buy a new car as well," Warren Schlichting, Dish's senior vice president of programming, said in a statement. "Fox blacked out two of its news channels, using them as leverage to triple rates on sports and entertainment channels that are not in this contract." 

Dish said it offered a short-term contract extension to keep the channels in its lineup, but Fox countered that Dish disconnected the channels "in an attempt to intimidate and sway our negotiations." 

"It is unfortunate that the millions of Fox News viewers on Dish were used as pawns by their provider," Tim Carry, executive vice president of distribution at Fox News Channel, said in a statement. "Hopefully they will vote with their hard earned money and seek another one of our other valued distributors immediately."

Gee look it's not only the Fox News hosts who are dicks.

I actually believe that this will be worked out and that Dish will put the channels back up.

Which is too bad really, because in my opinion the very epitome of patriotism in this country would be to stop broadcasting a fake news network that has done more to damage this country than the terrorists could ever have even imagined.