Sinclair’s Charge! Gains Carriage With Dish Network and Optimum

Charge!, one of Sinclair Broadcast Group’s over-the-air digital multicast networks, has added carriage with Dish Network and Altice USA’s Optimum cable systems, adding distribution to about 10 million homes.

Subscribers to Dish with an internet connected box will be able to watch Charge!, as will subscribers to Dish’s Sling TV streaming service.

Sinclair and Dish reached a new long-term carriage deal last November that covered retransmission of Sinclair’s stations and Tennis Channel.

Charge! focuses on action and adventure shows including CSI Miami, Knight Rider, CHiPs, Magnum PI, The Commish and Hunter. It was originally launched by Sinclair and MGM in 2017. Sinclair took over management of Charge! And another channel, Comet TV, in 2020.

Sinclair promotes its digitnets–Comet, Charge! and TBD as “The Stack.” ■

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.