Dish TV Network Balks At Sports Fees

NY Post 3/13/20

Satellite TV company Dish Network is picking a fight with Disney over the millions of dollars it pays for ESPN programming at a time when there are no sporting events, The NYPost reports.

Dish Network, the nation’s fourth largest TV provider, wants to wiggle out of the $80 million to $100 million fees it’s supposed to pay ESPN for April broadcasting rights, one source said. The fees are due at the end of the month and Dish has told ESPN that it plans to use that money instead to lower the monthly bills of its roughly 12 million subscribers, the source added.

“Charlie Ergen is trying to get out of the ESPN contract by claiming force majeure,” a source told The Post, referring to a contract clause that frees the parties from obligations due to an extraordinary event.

Disney’s ESPN has rebuffed the request, the second source said, but it’s unclear whether it will be able to enforce the payment. Plus, the Bristol, Conn-based sports network could soon be deluged with demands for discounts, according to analyst Rich Greenfield.

“US multichannel video subscribers effectively paid ESPN $650 million in April to watch one original series with literally no live sports on TV or for their talk show hosts to even talk about,” the LightShed Partners analyst said in a Tuesday analyst report.

“The multibillion dollar question becomes: what is stopping distributors from invoking force majeure? We believe there has to be a tipping point where enough sports have not occurred that distributors will refuse to pay sports network programmers.”

Greenfield in his note said he’s heard “multiple” multichannel video subscribers have been trying to wiggle out of their April affiliate fees to ESPN, without revealing names.

Dish, which declined to comment, has the most TV subscribers after Xfinity, DirecTV ad Spectrum.