Criticism of Dish Network

Dish Network has been the subject of a number of criticisms relating to management of advertising, disclosure of fees, telemarketing, employee rights and programming disputes; a number of which resulted in lawsuits. In the early 2000s, Dish Network received criticism regarding controversial technology and carriage disputes with programming providers. Most notably, when the Hopper digital video recorder provided an easy way for viewers to watch certain programming without commercials, major networks sued Dish Network.

AutoHop

Dish Network's Hopper digital video recorder, announced in January 2012, led to controversy over a feature, called "AutoHop", which allows viewers to watch some programming without commercials, subject to time restrictions.

AutoHop is an extension of the DVR's prime time recording capability. When activated, the feature records but hides commercials, giving viewers the option of viewing primetime programming on the four major networks commercial-free. Commercials cannot be skipped until 1 am Eastern Time, and the viewer must choose to do this. Recorded programs are available for eight days after they have aired. News of AutoHop met with an immediate, polarized response. The feature was deemed a "dream come true" for consumers, but for networks, a nightmare undercutting the revenue model. Dish asserted that AutoHop would encourage its customers to sample new programming. Leslie Moonves, CBS chief executive, asked rhetorically how he is to produce '' CSI'' without the revenue stream of commercials. News Corporation refused to accept Dish advertising for the device. A Forrester Research analyst said the move demonstrated Dish's desperation to keep customers at a time when alternative programming is readily available via the Internet.

The controversy surrounding AutoHop contributed to one small-market station group, Hoak Media Corporation, removing its 14 stations channels from the service on June 6, 2012. In negotiations, Hoak sought a 200 percent increase in carriage fees and the dropping of the AutoHop feature. David Shull, Dish senior vice president of programming, accused Hoak of effectively telling Dish's customers that they must watch commercials, disrespecting customer control over its services. Eight days later, the two companies announced a distribution deal. Terms were not disclosed.

On June 27, 2012, Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen told the United States House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology that the feature would enable parents to protect their children from alcohol and fast food advertising. The next day, Michael Petricone of the Consumer Electronics Association spoke to the subcommittee, likening Hopper to earlier time shifting devices. He argued that Hopper is legal and that AutoHop entices people to watch more television, thereby expanding television's market.

CNET was also forced by parent company CBS to disqualify the newest ''Hopper with Sling'' model from the CES Best in Show award for 2013 because of its active litigation with the company. CEO Joe Clayton said that Dish was "saddened that CNET's staff is being denied its editorial independence because of CBS' heavy-handed tactics." Dish Network directly attacked CBS for its decision in an advertisement for the device on its website. The ad proclaimed the DVR as being CNET's "Best in Show", but with a footnote stating that "CBS will go to any lengths to keep you from enjoying ad-skipping technologyeven censoring its own writers and throwing out their decision to name Hopper 'Best In Show.' Your vote is the only one that really matters."

Telemarketing violations

Dish Network independent dealers have repeatedly been charged and fined for employing illegal telemarketing tactics, such as violating do not call lists and making calls in which a live telemarketer does not connect promptly after the call is answered. Dish Network terminated agreements with some independent dealers in relation to these charges. In March 2009 the Federal Trade Commission charged Dish Network and two of its dealers with multiple violations of the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991.

Fee disclosures

In January 2004, thirteen states charged that Echostar, then the parent company of Dish Network, had not disclosed termination fees to potential customers and had debited customers' bank accounts for hidden fees. The company settled the lawsuit, paid $5 million, and promised to disclose all terms prior to signing contracts with potential customers.

Dish has also begun to collect shipping fees on equipment that needs to be returned after customers cancel their service with Dish. The shipping cost as of Sept. 2014 is $17. This fee applies regardless of whether the fee was included in the initial contract customers signed.

Programming disagreements

Dish Network has a lengthy history of carriage disputes.

QTN

Dish Network began negotiations with GTN (Gay Television Network) to carry the channel. GTN sent out a press release on February 2, 2001, announcing its launch and that its channel would be carried by Dish Network. Dish Network responded by denying that any contract had been signed and that the press release was premature. The president of GTN responded by calling Dish Network "homophobic". In April 2002, Dish Network signed a contract to carry GTN, renamed to Triangle Television Network, then Q Television Network (QTN). Dish Network now offers the Logo channel (HD only) in an add-on package (Blockbuster @Home) along with 16 other HD channels for a $10 monthly fee.

CBS Corporation/Viacom

In early 2004, CBS/Viacom pulled its networks and local channels from Dish Network including channels from MTV Networks (MTV, Nickelodeon, VH1, etc.), BET, as well as 10 CBS O&O stations after talks with them and Echostar broke down. The blackout only lasted for 2 days after both parties reached a deal.

Almost 11 years after the original dispute with Viacom/CBS, Dish faced a dispute with CBS Corporation, which had split from Viacom in early 2006. In the dispute, several CBS O&O stations, as well as all the channels of Showtime would originally be slated to be removed on November 20. However Dish reached 2 short-term extension agreements, the first on the date of the original deadline and the second short-term agreement was reached on the afternoon of the last day of the original extension agreement of November 26. Then CBS announced on December 2 that they would have removed the stations on the evening of December 4 if a new deal wasn't reached by then. Dish then got another short-term agreement to extend the deadline by one day. On December 5, Dish dropped CBS O&O stations in 14 markets Then on December 6, a day later, DISH and CBS reached a multi-year deal that would restore the CBS O&O stations in 14 markets as well as allow DISH customers to continue watching Showtime, The Movie Channel, Flix, CBS Sports Network, TVGN (which became Pop in early 2015) and would bring back Smithsonian Channel and DISH also added Showtime Anytime, and would allow CBS program to have ad-skip for their programming for Dish's Primetime Anytime on the Hopper DVR systems 7 days after the shows originally aired, which is 4 days longer than Disney/ABC's deal for the ad-skip feature. 14 TV stations owned by CBS were still carried.
In early 2016, Dish announced the removal of all Viacom channels set for the night of April 20. Although Viacom says it offered Dish financial terms "as good as larger distributors," the No. 2 satellite company "made demands that are designed to be impossible to meet in order to take our negotiations public and likely force our programming off the air."

Disney/ABC/ESPN

On August 4, 2009, Dish Network sued ESPN for $1 million in a federal lawsuit, alleging that it had breached its contract by not extending the same carriage terms the programmer provided to Comcast and DirecTV for ESPNU and ESPN Classic. The lawsuit claims ESPN violated the "Most Favored Nations" clause.

The next day, ESPN announced they will fight the lawsuit and said in a press release: "We have repeatedly advised Dish Network that we are in full compliance with our agreement and have offered them a distribution opportunity with respect to ESPNU and ESPN Classic consistent with the rest of the industry. We will not renegotiate settled contracts and will vigorously defend this legal action, the apparent sole purpose of which is to get a better deal."

Dish Network moved ESPNU from its "America's Top 250" package to its "America's Top 120" package on September 30, 2009. However, they claim it has nothing to do with the lawsuit.

On June 22, 2010, The Walt Disney Company (owner of ESPN) pulled ESPNews HD, Disney Channel HD, Disney XD HD and ABC Family HD from the Dish Network channel list because of Dish's "Free HD for Life" campaign, although the standard definition channels remained.

Disney later sued Dish because of the Hopper system which allows the stripping of commercials from their networks, and the animus affected both to the point where the original carriage agreement which expired in October 2013 was extended due to the Hopper, ESPN and HD issues while those were worked out to prevent the loss of access to Disney-ABC networks

Dish and Disney finally came to terms on all of the issues on March 4, 2014, which will allow Disney to launch Disney Junior, Fusion, ESPN Goal Line, the Longhorn Network and SEC Network on Dish, along with the launch or return of HD feeds for their other networks, along with mobile app access to Disney-ABC networks via Dish's TV Everywhere logins. ESPN Classic was returned solely as a video on demand option causing Disney to agree by dropping legal action against Dish for the Hopper system in exchange for programming recorded on ABC stations by Hopper DVR's being denied from having their advertising stripped until 3 days after its original broadcast.

Disney's channels went dark again on Dish and Sling TV on September 30, 2022. The blackout ended almost 48 hours later.

The Weather Channel

On May 20, 2010, Dish Network announced that it was dropping The Weather Channel at midnight ET that day in favor of its own similar weather information channel, The Weather Cast. The switch was due to high rates that The Weather Channel demanded Dish Network to pay (The Weather Channel requested a rate increase from 11 cents per subscriber per month to 12 cents).Dish Network is dropping The Weather Channel
. ''The Weather Channel'' news release (May 20, 2010) As of May 24, The Weather Channel stated that it had come to an agreement with Dish Network that would result in Dish Network carrying The Weather Channel for the next several years. Despite the earlier announcement that The Weather Channel would be dropped, the channel was never officially removed from Dish Network. The Weather Cast was discontinued in anticipation of a Weatherscan-based service that would provide local weather information for Dish Network customers. The financial terms of the deal remain undisclosed at this time.

Fox dispute

A month-long negotiation between Dish and Fox over licensing fees took place in October 2010, with Dish Network temporarily losing FX, the National Geographic Channel, and regional FSN channels. The two companies gave divergent accounts of the negotiations: Dish claimed that Fox was seeking a 20 percent hike in licensing fees; Fox disputed the number. The parties settled on October 29, two days before their agreement was set to expire. Terms were not disclosed.

For much of the summer of 2013, Dish, along with Time Warner Cable and DirecTV had been in a dispute whether to carry the new Fox Sports 1 formerly Speed, the new Fox Sports 2 formerly Fuel TV and the new FXX channel formerly Fox Soccer. On August 14, just three days before the launch of FS1, all three providers reached an agreement to carry those Fox channels.

For two weeks ending October 6, 2019, Dish Network also had to remove Fox owned local channels due to an expired retransmission consent agreement. Fox News and Fox Affiliates in smaller markets were not included in the outage.

MSG Network dispute

On October 1, 2010, Dish Network subscribers lost the MSG and MSG Plus regional sports networks due to a contract dispute with Madison Square Garden, Inc. MSG called on Dish Network to resume negotiations and reconsider its proposals but there was still no agreement as of September 15, 2013. MSG is linking carriage of these networks to their sister network Fuse, which was replaced with Palladia in July 2010.
However, in October 2012, Dish brought back Fuse, along with the AMC networks, so customers can enjoy both Fuse and Palladia. However, as of April 2017, Dish has not restored either MSG Network nor MSG Plus.

Belo Corp.

On October 29, 2010, it was announced that Belo Corporation and Dish Network were in a carriage dispute regarding rates. ABC affiliates WFAA in Dallas, Texas, KVUE in Austin, Texas, CBS affiliates KHOU in Houston, Texas, WWL-TV in New Orleans, Louisiana, Fox affiliate KMSB in Tucson, Arizona and 10 other local stations are affected. Two days later, both Belo and Dish Network reached an agreement, avoiding a service interruption. Belo had offered Dish Network an extension while negotiations were taking place. Had there been no agreement made by October 31 at midnight (all time zones), Belo would have pulled these channels from Dish Network. If the Fox Networks dispute would've continued throughout that time period, this combination would've created the biggest blow to Dish Network customers since Echostar's disagreement with CBS/Viacom in 2004.

SportsNet New York (SNY)

On April 1, 2011, Dish Network pulled SportsNet New York (which broadcasts New York Mets games) from its channel lineup due to a carriage dispute. As a result, Dish Network becomes the only satellite provider not to carry any Regional Sports Networks in the New York area. As of April 2017, Dish has still not returned SNY to its channel lineup.

Heritage Broadcasting Group of Michigan

On December 15, 2011, Dish Network pulled WWTV and WFQX, stations in the Northern Michigan television market owned by Heritage Broadcasting, citing "an outrageous fee increase". The dispute was resolved on December 20, restoring those two channels to the lineup. The same 2 channels were again pulled from the DISH Network lineup on May 28, 2015, due to another retransmission consent dispute, and were not restored for 3 months of being off the DISH lineup.

AMC Networks

On March 4, 2012, Dish Network announced that it would no longer carry the AMC Networks family of cable channels upon the expiration of the satellite provider's distribution agreement with the company at the end of June 2012, citing that AMC Networks charged an excessive amount in retransmission consent payments from the service for their carriage and low audience viewership for the channels.

AMC Networks responded to Dish's announcement of its pending removal of the channels as being related to a 2008 breach of contract lawsuit against Dish Network by former company parent Rainbow Media's Voom HD Networks, in which it is seeking more than $2.5 billion in damages against Dish for improperly terminating its carriage contract; Voom's high-definition channels were carried on the provider from May 1, 2005, until May 12, 2008, when Dish removed ten of Voom's fifteen channels from its lineup (the five remaining Voom HD channels were removed from Dish the day after). However, Dish states that the lawsuit is unrelated to the decision to remove the AMC Networks channels and that it ended the carriage agreement on its own terms.

On May 20, 2012, Dish Network removed Sundance Channel from its channel lineup. Two weeks later on June 4, 2012, Dish relocated AMC, WE tv, and IFC to higher channel positions with AMC being split into two separate standard definition and high definition channel feeds; the former channel lineup spaces occupied by the three channels were respectively replaced with HDNet, Style and MoviePlex multiplex channel Indieplex. The move is believed to be in response to an ad run during a June 3 airing of an episode of '' Mad Men'' urging Dish Network customers to inform the company to keep the three AMC Networks channels on the satellite provider with Dish stating that the relocated channel positions better reflect the channels' ratings.

On June 30, 2012, Dish dropped the three AMC Networks properties, replacing AMC with HDNet movies, IFC with HDNet, and WE tv with Style. The move coincided with a new agreement between Dish and AT&T U-verse.

On July 12, 2012, AMC said in an e-mailed statement that it would stream over the Internet the season premiere of "Breaking Bad" to DISH customers. "Dish subscribers can register online starting July 13 for the show, which airs on July 15. We want to give Dish customers an extra week to switch providers so they can enjoy the rest of the season."

On October 21, 2012, AMC Networks announced a settlement was reached between them, Cablevision and Dish in which Dish was forced to pay up to $700 Million in damages to Cablevision for damages from removing Voom owned channels off the Dish Lineup back in 2008, and in return Dish signed a new agreement to bring the AMC networks owned channels back on the Dish lineup with AMC returning October 21 and the rest on November 1.
Also, DISH simultaneously brought back FUSE, and all 4 channels were moved from "America's Top 200" to 120. The 14 NBCUniversal properties were dropped in 2016, the NBCUniversal properties are currently still on Dish.

Big Ten Network

On August 27, 2012, Big Ten Network (BTN) and Dish Network (Dish) began a dispute over the extant contract. This contract expired on August 31, 2012, the day before the college football season started. On September 1, 2012, Big Ten Network and Dish Network entered into a short-term arrangement and avoided a blackout. By September 14, 2012, the parties had failed to reach further agreement and BTN was dropped from the Dish lineup. On September 22, 2012, the Big Ten Network and Dish reached an agreement, returning BTN to the Dish lineup.

Gannett Company

In October 2012, Gannett Company

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