Dish and Morgan Murphy, which are at an impasse on a new retrans deal, have agreed to temporarily restore Morgan Murphy stations in Spokane and Yakima, Wash., to insure viewers have access to local news about the wildfires burning in the state.
That is according to Dish.
“We are pleased Morgan Murphy agreed with our request to allow its stations to fulfil their public interest duty,” said Warren Schlichting, DISH senior VP of programming, in a statement. “Now is the time to set aside business and give DISH customers access to local news and information as Washington battles fires in many parts of the state.”
Morgan Murphy countered that it had sought the temporary reinstatement given the fires.
Morgan Murphy stations have been off Dish since Aug. 13 after two extensions from the original July 16 termination of the carriage contract.
Stations returning to the Dish lineup are ABC affiliates KXLY-TV and KVEW-TV. Still off the satellite operator's lineup are WKBT-TV La Crosse, Wisc. and WISC-TV Madison.
At press time, KVEW was still showing a crawl saying it was off Dish.
