Sinclair Broadcast Group granted Dish Network yet another extension in carriage negotiations for its TV stations and regional sports networks, pushing back the deadline to Oct. 28, a source familiar with both companies said Thursday.

Also Read: Sinclair Still Working To Restore Systems After Ransomware Attack

This is the fifth extension Sinclair has granted in the talks to renew its retransmission consent deal with Dish, which was originally scheduled to expire in mid-August. When a deal was not reached by that deadline, Sinclair, which also is negotiating carriage of its RSNs with Dish, extended the talks until mid-September, and again pushed them out to mid-October when the stalemate continued. On Oct. 15, Sinclair again extended the deadline to Oct. 21. According to sources, Sinclair has also had to divert its attention to a ransomware attack that has disrupted several of its stations, which may have caused delays in talks.

At risk are about 108 television stations owned and/or operated by Sinclair, the Tennis Channel and 16 regional sports networks owned by the broadcaster. Dish hasn’t carried the RSNs for at least two years -- it dropped them in 2019 when they were owned by Fox Sports. Sinclair has said getting those RSNs back on Dish could mean as much as $400 million in additional revenue.

TDS Telecom, a Madison, Wisconsin-based mid-sized pay TV and broadband service provider, said it has restarted carriage negotiations with AMC Networks, just days after saying they would drop the programmer on June 10 because it is shifting original programming from its linear channels to its streaming service AMC Plus.

TDS Telecom is part of publicly traded Telephone & Data Systems, and provides TV, broadband and phone service to about 1.2 million customers in 32 states across the country and 280,000 cable subscribers in Texas, New Mexico, North Carolina, Colorado, Utah and Oregon (after its purchases of Crestview Cable in 2017 and Bend Broadband in 2014). The AMC Networks negotiation affects "all TDS and Bend Broadband channel lineups," the company said.

TDS has been in talks with AMC Networks since April -- its original carriage agreement was scheduled to expire on May 1. While the pay TV company was granted an extension to continue offering AMC programming while negotiations continued, around June 2 they apparently have reached a stalemate.

In a blog post June 2, TDS said it will no longer carry the channels -- AMC, BBC America, We TV (Women’s Entertainment), BBC World News, IFC, and Sundance -- as of June 10. 

“As with every contract negotiation, TDS looks for a fair and reasonable agreement. AMC launched AMC Plus, a direct to consumer streaming service last year. AMC Plus customers receive exclusive AMC content and early access to favorite ‘best of AMC’ shows and acclaimed movies,” TDS said in the blog post. “TDS does not agree with AMC’s decision to move valued content from live TV distribution to distribution exclusively on their streaming service. Asking cable subscribers to pay more while the AMC Network carves out highly valued content and delivers less to cable subscribers is not fair or reasonable.”

But on June 8, TDS Telecom’s director of external affairs and communications Kit Beyer said talks have resumed. 

“Since TDS notified its customers that it would no longer carry the AMC Network, discussions have restarted with the network,” Beyer said in an email message. “TDS will continue to fight for fair rates and terms for our customers and will strive for a reasonable outcome.” 

Whether that improves the chances that TDS Telecom will  continue to carry the  channels is unclear. In earlier stages of negotiations with the programmer, TDS Telecom appeared to be equally concerned with high prices and programming only available on AMC Plus. 

AMC Networks did not return requests for comment. 

AMC Networks launched AMC Plus in June 2020, and the service is available through partners like Comcast, AT&T/DirecTV and Dish Network, as well as via Roku, Amazon, Apple TV, YouTube TV and others. AMC said it had more than six million AMC plus subscribers at the end of 2020 and was on track to finish 2021 with 9 million streaming customers. AMC Plus is priced at about $8.99 per month.

TDS Telecom’s beef with the programmer is nothing new. Other providers have expressed disdain over networks that stream content at a price equal to or lesser than linear rates. But usually those tiffs get resolved.

Perhaps that will be the case here as well. But the idea that distributors, especially smaller ones that typically pay higher fees, are beginning to get upset that streaming offerings could cannibalize programming from linear channels that are currently paying the freight for programmers, is an issue that shouldn't be ignored. That streaming exclusive programming is becoming an increasingly popular practice among content companies could possibly pose problems in future negotiations, particularly with distributors that don't own content. 

Already MCTV, a small cable provider in Massillon, Ohio, said it would drop the AMC Networks channels on June 11. Conway, Arkansas-based operator Conway Corp. also has plans to drop the channels.

“After a thorough review of costs, viewership and availability of similar programming on our lineup AND on numerous streaming platforms, the decision was made to no longer carry AMC Networks,” MCTV said on its website. 

As a result, MCTV said the monthly rate for basic cable TV service would be reduced by $2, effective July 1. 

Conway TV, an electric, water, TV and telecom utility in Conway, Arkansas, said via Twitter on June 7  that it would drop the AMC channels on June 10. In addition, it is dropping Fusion TV on July 31. 

“We're committed to providing the community with quality TV programming at a competitive price, and these networks have increased their fees at an alarming rate that is unfair to our customers,” Conway TV said on its Twitter feed. 

Wells Fargo media analyst Steven Cahall told clients Tuesday that he believes Sinclair Broadcast Group’s regional sports networks could face a “tumultuous” period over the next few months, as uncertainty mounts concerning its upcoming carriage renewal with Dish Network and its ongoing battle with streamers YouTube TV and Hulu Live.

Sinclair’s RSNs, which were rebranded on April 1 as Bally Sports Networks, have been under the gun lately, after they failed to reach carriage deals with YouTube TV and Hulu before Opening Day of the Major League Baseball season. Now the networks -- which are housed under the umbrella of Diamond Sports Group -- are facing another potential battle as carriage negotiations with Dish Network are expected to start in the coming months. 

Also Read: Sinclair, Streamers Still at Impasse Over RSNs 

Dish dropped 16 former Fox Sports RSNs in July 2019,  shortly before Sinclair acquired the networks in August 2020. In a research note, Cahall wrote that he believes a deal eventually gets done, but will depend on the liquidity situation at Diamond. If Sinclair is able to favorably recapitalize the holding company -- which it is in the process of doing -- it should have the upper hand in talks with the satellite TV company. If not, Dish would have the advantage. 

But Dish has managed to survive for more than a year without the channels and has a reputation for taking an extremely hard line when it comes to sports channel carriage. That could also play a role in negotiations. 

“Dish is arguably the toughest MVPD negotiator and has financially benefited from dropping the RSNs,” Cahall wrote. “Thus, we believe a deal is likely, but our best guess is Dish returns with some sort of win/win partnership. Time will tell.”

Dish did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Also Read: RSNs Scramble for Streaming deals as Opening Day Approaches 

Sinclair and Diamond first started to try to restructure its debt in October.  Now, according to Bloomberg, Sinclair is entertaining creditor proposals to restructure the debt and was close to new marketing deals with other sports betting companies. 

According to Cahall, Bloomberg said that Diamond is in talks with creditors and outside investors on a number of issues, and one proposal by its unsecured creditors would have them pumping at least $500 million of new cash into the company and exchanging their bonds for new debt with tighter covenants. Other secured lenders have proposed a $500 million term loan which Sinclair could use to exchange existing unsecured debt.

If that comes to be, Cahall wrote that Sinclair’s $1.7 billion in unsecured debt (out of about $8.1 billion in total obligations) would become secured. That gives debtholders a little more security, especially in the event of a liquidation. Diamond’s liquidity is an issue -- Cahall estimated that it would run out of cash in 18 months if nothing is done -- and in the early stages of the negotiations six months ago, bankruptcy was an option that was being considered. 

“The unsecured bonds are trading at $48 - a steep 52% discount,” Cahall wrote. “Given our latest EBITDA and FCF outlook for Diamond the cash starts to run out in the next 18 months. That's both a bad backdrop for renegotiating with Dish - thus a self-fulfilling negative prophecy - and if liquidity issues were to ultimately push Diamond into a liquidation, the unsecured lenders would likely not receive much recompense. Therefore, a haircut today with future security is arguably a positive outcome for these lenders.”

As the holiday season approaches, pay TV subscribers can start looking forward to worrying about not being able to see their favorite programming because of year-end carriage disputes.

Over the years, many a Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s have been tainted as cable operators, satellite distributors, programmers and station owners square off, threatening to pull signals and, in some cases, actually blacking out channels, sometimes for a few hours, sometimes for weeks.

At this point, some carriers have warned subscribers of potentially going out of contact and losing the right to retransmit some channels. Some of these warnings are more serious than others.

For example, on Comcast’s Xfiinty Upcoming Contract Renewals site, there’s a warning that as of November, FX, FXX, National Geographic and NatGeo Wild could vanish. (Subs of Hulu--still partly owned by Comcast--will still get FX on Hulu.) While Comcast has a pretty solid record of avoiding blackout, it's worth noting that Comcast’s top execs were not happy when Rupert Murdoch decided not to sell those channels, and the rest of 21st Century Fox to Comcast and instead let The Walt Disney Co., acquire them.

It’s hard to tell how much of a chance there is those Disney channels get blacked out, but odds are much higher that some of the other channels on the Xfinity Contract Renewals site--notably Bravo, CNBC, E!, Golf Channel, Olympic Channel, Oxygen, Syfy, Telemundo, Universo, USA and a bunch of NBC Sports regional sports networks--will be pulled in December.

Those channels are owned by NBCUniversal, which is a division of Comcast. Essentially one side of Brian Roberts’ house is negotiating with the other side. But a deal must be reached, and that deal will be a factor in how much other distributors pay, given the industry’s reliance on Most Favored Nation agreements that say that I get the same price you gave them.

NBCU executives declined to comment and a Comcast spokesman pointed to the statement on the Xfinity site that says: “We expect that we will be able to reach an agreement with the owners of these channels to continue carrying them well into the future. Comcast has successfully renegotiated thousands of expiring contracts over the years and rarely experienced an interruption of service.”

Insiders also pointed to a similar disclosure by AT&T that pay TV services could be prevented from distribution channels that are run by AT&T WarnerMedia unit. 

Those networks include Cartoon Networks, CNN, TBS, TNT, truTV and Turner Classic Movies.

“If reasonable agreements cannot be reached with the programmers these channels will no longer be available,” the AT&T notice said.

We’ll be sitting by the the tube--and the phone--to see who will be reasonable.

Cable operators are telling the FCC that retrans regulations should apply to carriage negotiations that include ancillary "broadcast internet" services. 

Related: ATVA Says FCC Should Mandate HD Before Allowing Broadcast Internet

That came in comments by NCTA-The Internet & Television Association on the FCC's inquiry into what, if any, rules need to be changed to accommodate broadcaster's potential new multichannel services using the ATSC 3.0 transmission standard. 

The FCC voted unanimously in June to help promote broadcasting as a new ancillary/competitive broadband service by making it clear that legacy broadcast TV attribution and ownership regulations do not apply to broadcast-delivered internet services like over-the-top video and data made possible by the ATSC 3.0 broadcast transmission standard. 

TV stations can enter into lease agreements with any other station, or stations, in a single market to offer internet services without triggering the FCC's broadcast ownership and attribution rules, the FCC said. 

But NCTA said stations that do team up to provide those services should trigger restrictions on joint retrans negotiations by noncommonly owned stations. 

Related: Tech Groups Say TV Signal Spill-Over Should Be Deemed 'Unlicensed' 

Two TV stations are prohibited from negotiating jointly for MVPD carriage unless they are commonly owned, NCTA points out, per a congressional mandate and FCC rules.  

"Under these controlling principles," NCTA told the commission, "a broadcaster’s demand that a cable operator provide capacity on its system for a Broadcast Internet service that the broadcaster provides jointly with other non-commonly owned stations in the same market is joint or coordinated retransmission consent negotiations by these stations." 

It wants the FCC to "clarify" that that is indeed the case. "A broadcaster’s use of retransmission consent to acquire capacity on a cable system for a Broadcast Internet service provided by a consortium of non-commonly owned broadcasters implicates the same anti-competitive concerns as joint retransmission consent negotiations, and should similarly be prohibited," NCTA said.  

It also wants the FCC to adjust TV stations' regulatory fee so that it is not a broadcast subsidy, and to prevent broadcasters from degrading their primary channel in the process of rolling out a broadcast internet service. "The Commission asks 'whether a broadcaster’s replacement of an HD offering with an SD offering in order to deploy ancillary and supplementary services should be deemed a derogation of advanced television services under [its] rules," NCTA pointed out, adding: "The answer is yes."  

The Walt Disney Co., began warning AT&T video subscribers Monday night that they could lose access to ABC, ESPN, Freeform and the Disney Channel if a carriage deal isn’t reached soon, potentially becoming the third blackout in the past several months for the pay TV giant.

“Our contract with AT&T for the ABC, ESPN, Disney, and Freeform networks is due to expire soon, so we have a responsibility to make our viewers aware of the potential loss of our programming,” Disney said in a statement. “However, we remain fully committed to reaching a deal and are hopeful we can do so.”

The programmer urged customers to visit this website for more information. 

Disney wouldn’t say when their deal with AT&T expires, but it is likely to be at the end of the month. Disney last reached a carriage deal with DirecTV in December 2014 for a deal that initially expired on Sept. 30 of that year.

In addition to DirecTV, AT&T's pay TV operations include U-verse and AT&T TV Now. The company expects to launch a streaming offering -- AT&T TV -- in the fall. 

If the Disney channels were to go dark, it would be the third ongoing blackout for AT&T customers. On Aug. 31, regional sports network Altitude Sports and Entertainment went dark to DirecTV customers. On May 30, about 17 TV stations went dark to AT&T customers after they could not reach a retransmission consent agreement. The company recently reached deals with CBS and Nexstar Media Group after brief blackouts.

“We’re disappointed to see The Walt Disney Co. put their viewers into the middle of negotiations. We are on the side of consumer choice and value and want to keep Disney channels and owned-and-operated local ABC stations in eight cities in our customers’ lineups,” DirecTV parent AT&T said in a statement. “We hope to avoid any interruption to the services some of our customers care about. Our goal is always to deliver the content our customers want at a value that also makes sense to them. We’ll continue to fight for that here and appreciate their patience while we work this matter out.”

AT&T and Viacom executives were hunkered down late Friday at DirecTV’s El Segundo, Calif., headquarters, trying to hammer out a carriage deal for AT&T’s four distribution platforms and avoid a blackout of the programmer’s two dozen networks.

While there are no indications where negotiations will ultimately land, it is at encouraging that the parties are still talking. 

Viacom has been warning AT&T customers for about a week that they may lose access to networks like Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV and others unless they can work out a carriage deal with the distributor. At stake is carriage on AT&T’s DirecTV, DirecTV Now, Uverse and AT&T Watch platforms with about 24 million subscribers.

AT&T has said it would take an “assertive” stance when it came to programming agreements, noting that customers aren’t willing to pay more for programming g they don’t watch. AT&T has said it wants to reach a deal, but in the same breath notes that viewership at Viacom channels is down 40% in some cases.

Viacom has struggled with poor ratings, as has the rest of the programming industry, but has recently experienced a turnaround as it has shifted focus to its six core networks. Viacom has also said it has offered AT&T a deal that would keep its costs down.

Whether that is enough will be proven by midnight. Most analysts believe that both sides have too much to lose — up to $2 billion in lost affiliate fees and ad revenue for Viacom if it were dropped by AT&T. For AT&T, dropping the popular network could result in heavy subscriber losses at its satellite TV unit, which already has shed more than 1 million customers in 2018.

In a note to clients, Wolfe Research managing director Marci Ryvicker wrote that she believed AT&T was being “irrational,” adding that Viacom channels make up a low teens percentage of the distributor's viewership.

“Which means should Viacom nets go dark, then AT&T clearly doesn’t care about churn, which is probably one of the largest sunk costs we can think of for distributors,” Ryvicker wrote. “Dropping Viacom will give other content providers leverage, in our view. Should Viacom be dropped, we think AT&T loses leverage with other content players – we don’t see how it can afford to lose any other content.”

Sanford Bernstein media analyst Todd Juenger estimated that DirecTV could lose as many as 3.1 million subscribers in a Viacom blackout and still come out ahead.

Juenger wrote in a research note that Viacom’s audiences are down about 50% since 2011 (versus total industry down 40%), while affiliate fee payments to the networks are down just 2% since 2014. The Nickelodeon networks, he estimated, are down 58%.

Ryvicker countered that Nick still controls half of the kids’ market, which becomes even more valuable as programmers increasingly take their content direct to consumer.

“So what happens when DIsney starts phasing out content for Disney+?,” she asked.

Juenger added that if AT&T doesn’t drop Viacom completely, they should at least negotiate a significant price decrease and consider putting Nickelodeon on a newly created kids/ family tier.

“Only 40% of US households have kids, and only a fraction of them are watching,” Juenger wrote.

The Walt Disney Co.’s decision to take its powerful content direct to consumers via streaming puts its traditional distributors in an unprecedented place.

Already, traditional pay TV subscriptions are falling. Disney said Tuesday (Aug. 8) during its earnings call that ESPN’s subscriber total was down 3.5% -- a big bite for a network that makes about $7 per month per sub.

“There are many investors who believe that Disney, more than any other company, is responsible for holding what's left of the bundle together,” said analyst Todd Juenger of Sanford C. Bernstein, in a research note.

“Those that hold that view have been waiting for Disney to drop this bombshell, signaling the end of the bundle as we know it," Juenger added. "Did Disney just do that? The answer depends on how much you want to take the (scant) descriptions of these services at face value.”

Related: Losing Disney Movies May Not Hurt Netflix: Analyst

To Marci Ryvicker of Wells Fargo, Disney's announcement led to many unanswerable questions.

"The ESPN service sure sounded to us like management is positioning it (for now, at launch) as an 'add-on' service that would mostly sit on top of the existing ESPN linear networks and deliver extra value and features," Ryvicker said in a note. “How does this impact DIS's upcoming affiliate renewals (CEO Bob Iger did state that he has NOT had conversations with the cable distributors on these services just yet)? How will peers and partners react?”

MCN Flashback, July 27, 2015 > Report: Iger Says ESPN Could Go Direct to Consumer in Five Years

Iger indeed said during the earnings call that Disney had not discussed its plans with its distribution partners. He seemed to think there would not be a backlash.

“As we enter a new round of distribution negotiations, we have all the confidence in the world in our ability to strike deals that are favorable to the company, given the strength of the product that we offer, particularly the strength of the brands,” Iger said.

“If you look very specifically at ESPN, we still see it as a must-have service for the multichannel providers because of the array of product that ESPN has licensed, and what they produce is original programming for the service,” Iger said. “We have seen, as I think that many of you have, a pretty interesting and dramatic increase in -- I'll call it 'app-based media consumption.' Much of it is on over-the-top, direct-to-consumer services.”

How will cable operators react?

“The MVPDs also now face a tough decision," Juenger said. "View this as an upsell partnership? But watch your backs when Disney reaches the inevitable pivot point and decides to go around you.

“Disney makes it sound like they want to position this as a win/win: ‘Upsell your subscribers to new levels of service,’" Juenger continued. "On the other hand, all it will take is a flip of the switch, and Disney can cut the MVPD out of the equation entirely. We can't think of much upside for the MVPDs to be combative with Disney at this stage, at least for the big MVPDs.”

Related > Making the Right Moves: Distributors Strategize in a New Era of Programming

There will be even more pressure on small distributors who are not making money on video and might exit that business to keep making money on high-speed internet.

“But we think the MVPDs will certainly be trying to think of ways to protect themselves against the inevitable future date when Disney goes completely direct,” Juenger said.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

The programming landscape has changed dramatically in the past several years, with the advent of subscription video-on-demand and over-the-top players further complicating an already convoluted negotiating process.

Today’s programming executives at large, midsized and small pay TV service providers have to be schooled not only in the economics of traditional linear networks, but also in the nuances of online offerings, over-the-top, TV everywhere and video-on-demand rights.

Programming deals that a few years ago took only a few distribution professionals to hammer out now require dozens, and conversations can get just as bogged down and lengthy over the definition of “Internet” as they do over per-subscriber fees and ratings points. Terms like “stacking rights,” which didn’t exist just a few years ago, are now a regular part of the discussions.

As Mediacom Communications executive vice president of programming and human resources Italia Commisso Weinand put it, brands are becoming less important as younger viewers grow attached to individual shows and disregard the networks carrying them.

While a large contingent of television viewers still watch on the big screen at home — something the networks continue to bank as those subscribers increasingly pay the freight — the business is fragmenting and could splinter even more as time wears on.

Add to the mix the consolidation already underway in the distribution sector, spurred by Charter Communications’s $78.7 billion purchase of Time Warner Cable and Altice USA’s deals to buy Cablevision Systems and Suddenlink Communications, and the soup gets thicker. The mergers have led to a reshuffling on the distributor side of the negotiating table, with the people programmers need to know when they pitch their content changing jobs.

Content negotiations aren’t expected to get any more cordial as the business changes, but Commisso Weinand said they have gotten a little less contentious. Issues like pricing, sports costs and skinny bundles will be at the top of the list of pain points for both programmers and distributors for the foreseeable future. But Commisso Weinand is beginning to see a slight change in attitude.

“Not a lot has changed, however, the cockiness has been tempered somewhat,” Commisso Weinand said.

There have been changes, though, among many of the top content-acquisition executives at pay TV providers, so it’s a good time to take a look at who these “gatekeeper” executives are and to check in with some of them in sidebar conversations.

Spotlight on Mediacom's Italia Commisso Weinand: Tough but Fair

AT&T/DirecTV |Dan York
Chief content officer

York has come full circle with AT&T following its July 2015 purchase of DirecTV.

He first worked for AT&T in 2004 as president of content and advertising sales. He left in 2012 to take over programming negotiating duties at DirecTV as chief content officer and returned to the telco last year after it bought DirecTV in a $48.5 billion deal.

A seasoned executive who knows how both sides of the table work — prior to his first go-round with AT&T, York had served stints with InDemand and Home Box Office — York wields considerable clout as the top programming dealmaker for the largest MVPD in the country, with 26 million video customers.

AT&T has an iron in several content fires, which should make York’s days chock full of activity – it is migrating video customers off its U-Verse platform (which York helped form) onto DirecTV; DirecTV is readying an OTT service called DirecTV Now for launch by the end of the year; and AT&T has said mobile video, with its myriad and complicated programming rights issues, is a top priority in the future.

Key Lieutenants: Michele Barney, vice president of content and programming; Todd Mathers, senior vice president of content and programming; Rob Thun, senior vice president of content and programming

Comcast |Greg Rigdon
Executive vice president, content acquisition

Comcast has cut some landmark programming deals over the years — its comprehensive 10-year carriage deal with Walt Disney Co. in 2012 is largely considered the template for the industry — and Greg Rigdon has been in on many of them.

Looking forward, the content chief will have the chance to make history again, possibly, as Comcast’s programming deals with 21st Century Fox are expected to come due at the end of the year. Besides potentially laying new ground with iconic Fox cable networks like Fox News Channel, FX and FX Movies, the negotiations will also give Comcast the opportunity to revisit Fox’s YES Network regional sports channel, the home of the New York Yankees. YES has been dark to Comcast customers in the New York area since November 2015, over pricing and rights disputes. Some observers have said that Comcast has been waiting for all of its Fox deals to come due before addressing its YES challenge.

Prior to joining Comcast in 2010, Rigdon was executive vice president, programming, business development and strategy, at Charter Communications. He also previously held senior roles in programming strategy, business affairs and commerce, at AOL.

Key Lieutenants: Jennifer Gaiski, senior vice president, content acquisition, Comcast Cable; Sarah Gitchell, senior vice president/deputy general counsel, Comcast Cable; Justin Smith, senior vice president, content acquisition, Comcast Cable

Charter Communications |David Ellen
Senior executive vice president

Ellen came to Charter in July, through a portal that has been common for many company executives in the past two years: service at Cablevision Systems. As senior EVP, Ellen is in charge of corporate functions, including programming, news and sports networks, strategic policy development, regulatory compliance, human resources, communications and security. He will also oversee the legal support for those units.

Charter completed its purchases of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks in May, quadrupling its subscriber base to 17.4 million customers from around 4 million. With that added heft, Charter is expected to enjoy considerably lower programming costs. Charter itself has said that about half of the expected $800 million in synergies from the merger will be the result of programming savings.

The company has tried to enjoy some of those synergies already: It is being sued by at least three programmers — Fox News Channel, Univision Communications and Showtime — that have claimed Charter’s interpretation of the merger allows it to pay lower rates until the end of the year.

Ellen has plenty of help. Charter recently beefed up the programming ranks, adding another Cablevision alumnus, EVP of programming acquisition Tom Montemagno (see below), earlier this year. Allan Singer, who served as SVP of programming for about five years, left earlier this year, citing an unwillingness to relocate from his Denver home to Charter’s Stamford, Conn., headquarters.

Ellen served as general counsel for Cablevision for several years, working closely with CEO James Dolan on all aspects of the business, before leaving shortly after the company’s purchase by Altice USA. Ellen had also led Cablevision’s successful defense of its cloud-based DVR product as well as the legal strategy supporting the rollout of in-home streaming of its cable services to IP-enabled devices.

Prior to Cablevision, Ellen was general counsel at Barry Diller’s Internet conglomerate IAC and at Eureka Broadband, a New York-based telecom company. Before that he was a special counsel at the Federal Communications Commission, working on the implementation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and served as a law clerk for Judges Stephen Breyer and Judge Ruth Bader Ginsberg when they were on the U.S. Court of Appeals, and for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor during her time on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Charter Communications |Tom Montemagno
Executive vice president, programming acquisition

Montemagno is the latest former Cablevision executive to join the Charter fold, signing on Sept. 6 to head up overall programming negotiations and reporting to Ellen.

Montemagno spent 27 years at Cablevision, most recently as executive VP of programming, and over the past three decades has served in several other roles, including senior vice president of programming acquisition and as the operator’s lead negotiator with content companies.

At Charter, Montemagno oversees negotiations with its full range of content providers, from the major multichannel media companies and regional sports networks to local broadcasters and niche international programmers. The negotiations increasingly extend beyond traditional “linear” programming rights to include video-on-demand and out-of-home streaming rights on multiple platforms.

Dish Network |Warren Schlichting
Executive vice president of marketing, programming and media sales

A veteran advertising and media executive, Schlichting oversees the acquisition and renewal of all programming content for Dish, including national broadcast networks and cable channels, Latino content, local broadcast stations and premium services such as HBO, Showtime and Starz. Additionally, Warren oversees Dish’s national marketing efforts and Dish Media Sales, the company’s advertising-sales division.

Schlichting took over the programming negotiation reins from current chief financial officer Steve Swain, who temporarily served as programming chief after EVP of programming Dave Shull left in 2014.

Schlichting has upheld the Dish tradition of aggressive programming negotiations fostered by its founder, chairman and CEO Charlie Ergen. Dish hasn’t been afraid to let channels go dark as it tries to negotiate better rates and expanded rights with content companies.

In the past month alone, Dish brought back NFL Network and NFL Red Zone, signing a new deal Aug. 2 after the nets were dark for seven weeks, and lit up broadcaster Tribune Media’s 42 stations in 33 markets on Sept. 3 after 12 weeks of darkness. Longer term, Dish signed multiyear deals with Turner networks like CNN and Cartoon Network in November (TBS and TNT were not set to expire) after a few weeks of darkness, and renewed with 21st Century Fox’s Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network after a nearly one-month blackout in January 2015.

Prior to joining Dish in 2011, Schlichting led Comcast’s advanced advertising efforts on multiple media and ad delivery platforms including broadband, interactive television and video-on-demand. Before arriving at Comcast, he was CEO of Hiwire, a Los Angeles-based technology company that provided online ad replacement software for Clear Channel and other radio station groups. He also served in executive positions for Morgan Stanley and the William E. Simon private equity group.

Key Lieutenants: Josh Clark, vice president of programming, Dish Network; Andy LeCuyer, vice president of programming, Dish Network; Izabela Slowikowska, vice president of international programming, Dish Network; Melisa Ordonez, director of programming acquisition, Dish Network; and Ankit Bishnoi, head of content acquisition for Sling TV

Spotlight on Cox's Andrew Albert: Engineers on Board

Cox Communications |Andrew Albert
Senior vice president of programming

Albert oversees all video programming provider relationships and content acquisition, including the negotiation of program carriage agreements with major content producers such as The Walt Disney Co., Turner Broadcasting System, NBCUniversal, Viacom and Fox. He is actively involved in setting the company’s video product strategy, including the deployment of TV everywhere, video-on-demand and high-definition services, as well as the company’s multicultural programming strategy.

Albert joined Cox Communications in 1995 as director of programming and was promoted to executive director of programming in 2002. In 2003, Albert was promoted to vice president. He was promoted to his current role in 2013. Prior to joining Cox, he served as director of programming and director of budgets and financial analysis for TeleCable Corp. in Norfolk, Va.

Prior to that, Albert was in the Financial Management Program and served as a sales and marketing analyst at General Electric.

Key Lieutenants: Suzanne Fenwick, vice president, content acquisition; Mark Gathen, vice president, content acquisition; Chris Tygh, vice president, content acquisition

Altice USA |Michael Schreiber
Chief content officer

Schreiber is responsible for Altice USA’s programming- related developments, negotiations and agreements covering all content platforms and reports to co-president and chief financial officer Charles Stewart.

Prior to Altice, Schreiber served as senior vice president, content acquisition for Comcast, where he led the execution of new media and digital content deals. Prior to his role at Comcast, Schreiber worked at NBCUniversal, most recently as vice president, business development, digital distribution, where he assisted in the founding, development and launch of Hulu.

Altice USA |Alan Dannenbaum
Senior vice president, programming

A Comcast alumnus, Dannenbaum works with Schreiber on programming-related developments, negotiations and agreements across all platforms.

Dannenbaum spent more than 20 years at Comcast in various roles before forming his own business, Dannenbaum Consulting, in April 2015. He had joined Comcast in 1993 as associate general counsel. He also served as executive VP of Satellite Services Inc., from 2009 to 2014.

Spotlight on Verizon's Ben Grad: Giving the People What They Want

Verizon Fios |Ben Grad
Executive director of content strategy and acquisition

Ben Grad leads Verizon’s companywide content acquisition efforts with major content providers and sports rightsholders, and manages financial and strategic analysis for the telco’s key content-related initiatives. He is responsible for content acquisition and strategy for Fios, including developing Fios’s multiplatform content offering.

Prior to joining Verizon in 2007, Grad was head of strategy at Fuse, where he assessed programming and new business opportunities. Previously, he was a member of Time Warner’s Corporate Strategic Planning Group, where he developed and assessed new digital distribution opportunities for Time Warner divisions. He also negotiated agreements and developed strategy at eLabs, Universal Music Group’s digital group.

Key Leaders: Tricia Lynch, executive director of content strategy and acquisition; Michelle Webb, executive director of content strategy and acquisition

Mediacom Communications |Italia Commisso Weinand
Executive vice president, programming and human resources

With nearly 40 years of experience in the cable industry, Commisso Weinand served stints with Comcast, Tele-Communications Inc., Times-Mirror Cable and Time Warner Inc. before joining her brother’s cable company, Mediacom, in 1996 as VP of Operations. One of the most respected programming executives in the cable industry, she is known for a tough but fair negotiating style and has helped engineer some of the landmark deals in cable, including a 2014 Walt Disney Co. pact that gave Mediacom access to authenticated WATCH and video-on-demand products, the ABC broadcast network and cable channels like SEC Network, ESPN Goal Line and ESPN Buzzer Beater.

Key Lieutenants: Barry Paden, group vice president, programming; Joseph Appio, vice president of programming; Glenn Goldsmith, consultant; John Woods, vice president, advanced programming

National Cable Television Cooperative |Judy Meyka
Executive vice president of programming

It may cater to small operators, but the National Cable Television Cooperative represents nearly as many cable customers as the biggest of the big operators — Comcast — with its 850 members tallying about 20 million subscribers across the country. Meyka, who has served stints at large operators like Media One, AT&T Broadband and Adelphia Communications as well as programmers like iNDemand in her 23 years in the business, is the group’s chief programming negotiator.

That experience helps Meyka bring a new perspective to the organization, and in her time there she has completed deals with multiple major programming partners and secured new agreements with independent programmers and new-to-market content providers.

That can come in handy because although the co-op has negotiating heft, not every member has to sign on to every deal. NCTC members range from larger operators like Cox Communications, with about 4 million customers, to tiny family-owned operations with just a few dozen customers, all with different programming needs.

While pricing continues to be the biggest issue around negotiating time, bundling, online, TV Everywhere and mobile rights have become increasingly important aspects of negotiations for all NCTC members.

That was evident in recent deals with AMC Networks, where NCTC was able to avoid a blackout by hammering out a deal that didn’t force members to carry all six AMC channels on their most popular tiers — and got a more modest price increase.

U.K. tech firm Genius Digital is launching its Insight Platform at the National Association of Broadcasters Show in Las Vegas Thursday (April 9), analytics software that it said can help distributors negotiate carriage fees and calculate the value of channels.

“Viewing data can provide real insights that give operators a sounder basis than ever to negotiate carriage deals.,” said Genius Digital chairman Jonathan Sykes in a statement. “With insightful viewing data, broadcasters and operators can truly know which services are watched, which are not, and can decide accordingly how much they are willing to pay for a channel.”

The Genius Digital Insight Platform analyzes audience activity from almost any platform and device, across linear, on-demand or hybrid services, in real-time. By taking data from hundreds of thousands of subscribers and developing ways to act upon it, broadcasters and operators are equipped with data that can help them build more compelling services, enter content deals with real viewer data and build offerings, such as targeted advertising, based on actual audience activity.

“Data brings a lot to the table for today’s broadcasters and operators, helping to map viewing to subscriber satisfaction, outline the overall brand strength of a channel, as well as drive the commissioning of new channels,” Sykes continued. “We are excited to be making our debut at this year’s NAB, and showing operators how they can utilize viewing data to drive their TV and video services.”

During the show, Genius Digital will participate in the panels "Building and Retaining a Customer Base" and "Engaging with the Viewer and Making it Pay," both on April 14 in the Connected Media/IP theater. The company will also be presenting "Why Return Path Data is Rewriting the Rulebook for Operators" on April 15 in the the same theater.

Discovery Communications decision to move its highly-rated Shark Week programming block to July could give the programmer a leg up in upcoming negotiations with Comcast.

Discovery announced in late January that it would move the Shark Week block – a solid week of Shark-centric programming that has become its highest rated week – to July 5-12. Last August, the Shark Week block broke records, earning the highest ratings ever for Discovery among total viewers and women ages 25-54, as well as women ages 18-49. In addition to the July 5 debut, Discovery will also air new shark-oriented programming during a special weekend in August.

The July move, while helping to create a “summer-long” block of shark-oriented programming, also comes near the expected expiration of Discovery’s carriage deal with Comcast. And it could come in handy – Discovery Communications CEO David Zaslav has been critical of Comcast’s pending $67 billion purchase of Time Warner Cable.

In public filings, Comcast has said Discovery’s opposition to the TWC deal is motivated by finances – it claimed the programmer had “demanded unwarranted business concessions” in exchange for not opposing the TWC deal. Discovery had countered at the time that Comcast’s charges were an effort to divert attention from the del’s real problems.

Also in that filing, Comcast said its Discovery deal expired in mid-2015, which would put it at or about June 30.

Discovery declined to comment.

DirecTV, having reached a TV Everywhere accord today with Fox's national networks, is continuing to work toward a comprehensive distribution deal with The Walt Disney Co.

DirecTV and Disney's 10-year distribution agreement ended Sept. 30. Under an extension, the parties, according to sources, have been continuing to negotiate a new pact that would not only include continued carriage of a suite of Disney networks and services, but encompass new digital rights that would also allow for TVE simulcasting for authenticated DirecTV subscribers.

Not having access to DirecTV's 20 million-plus subs has been a major hole within Disney's streaming lineup, notably for WatchESPN.

DirecTV and ESPN officials declined to comment about the state of their discussions.

With DirecTV and Disney committed to negotiating until a new agreement is reached, there doesn't appear to be any reason for the top DBS provider's subscribers to fear a possible disconnect that would result in the loss of any of the programmer's fare, including the inaugural College Football Playoff games on New Year's Day.

In dealing with Dish Network earlier this year, Disney remained in talks with the No. 2 DBS player for five months until they reached a broad deal in March that also included the launch of the Watch services.

Still disconnected from Dish Network in a carriage dispute and with the Boston Celtics set to open their 2014-15 NBA season on Wednesday night, Comcast SportsNet New England has launched a radio campaign aimed at turning up fan heat on the DBS provider.

CSN New England, the regional sports network home to the Celtics, said it has secured radio schedules within the Boston DMA and throughout its six-state TV territory that urge listeners that reach out to Dish and demand that the provider restore the service, or switch to providers that carry the channel. Boston opens its season at home against Brooklyn on Oct. 29.

The RSN has been dark to Dish Network subscribers since Aug. 6. The carriage contract between the RSN and the No. 2 DBS provider expired on June 30, but there were a series of subsequent extensions.

The RSN counts some 4 million subs throughout New England, mainly via Comcast and DirecTV, which are battling in bankruptcy court over the fate of another sports network, CSN Houston.

Noting that all other providers are carrying the RSN, CSN New England officials said negotiations with Dish continue, and it hopes that the No. 2 satellite provider will agree to terms. Dish is also out of contract with a number of Turner Broadcasting System-owned services.

“We are disappointed that Dish has dropped Comcast SportsNet New England and continue negotiations in hopes that they will provide the region’s passionate fans with access to Comcast SportsNet's exclusive Patriots coverage and live Celtics games in advance of the NBA's regular season,” said the RSN in a statement. “We encourage Dish customers to contact Dish directly by calling 1-800-823-4929, or switch to another provider.”  

On Tuesday, Dish officials offered no additional comment, but reissued the statement it released in August: "Comcast Sportsnet New England wants to put a double-digit rate increase on the backs of consumers for a channel that has seen viewership drop over 40 percent since 2011. Dish is committed to providing high-quality sports programming at an appropriate value. We urge Comcast Sportsnet New England to work with Dish to strike that balance."

The radio spot, which is airing on Boston’s WEEI, WZLX and The Sports Hub, and in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire, shoots with hoops parlance in an attempt to press Dish.

The copy, pointing out that team is back on the RSN, says in part that “if you’re a Dish subscriber, they’ve boxed you out. That means no [point guard Rajon] Rondo, no Celtics. Dish has dropped CSN New England. To get it back, call 1-800-823-4929 and demand Dish restore your Celtics coverage.”

The message then moves toward a switch assist, noting that DirecTV, Charter, Cox, Verizon FiOS, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and other local provider all carry Comcast SportsNet.