Satellite : Dish Network dealmaker Sahl leaving

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Dish Network dealmaker Sahl leaving


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The executive in charge of negotiating programming deals for Dish Network is leaving the company, sources confirmed last week.
Eric Sahl, EchoStar’s senior vice president of programming, will leave the satellite operator by the end of the year. Where Sahl was headed after leaving EchoStar could not be determined.
EchoStar will start a search for Sahl’s replacement after the new year. In the meantime, many of his responsibilities are expected to be divided among Senior Vice President Michael McKenna, and vice presidents Carolyn Crawford and Andy Karofsky.
EchoStar officials refused to comment for this story.
The position is an important one for sports programmers because EchoStar is the fourth largest U.S. operator, behind Comcast, DirecTV and Time Warner Cable. EchoStar’s Dish Network has 12 million to 13 million subscribers.
Under Sahl’s charge, Dish Network has been known for its tough stance with sports programmers, as the network does not have deals with the likes of MLB Network, The mtn. or YES Network, for example, because of disputes over price and channel positioning.
The satellite operator has been embroiled in several other fights over the years. After the NFL Network made last year’s season-ending New England Patriots-New York Giants game available to over-the-air broadcasters, EchoStar moved the channel to a less widely distributed tier. The NFL sued and the case is in the courts.
In October 2005, EchoStar dropped OLN (now Versus), just as the Comcast-owned network was debuting NHL games, after balking over the channel’s surcharge demands to carry live NHL games. EchoStar did not put OLN back on its system until April 2006, when the NHL playoffs were about to start.
Sahl has been heading the company’s programming acquisition department since summer 2005, when he was promoted to replace Michael Schwimmer