Dish Network to pull KIDK from their satellite service

[acidcore]

IDAHO FALLS - If you are one of thousands who watch Channel 3 and it's CBS programs through Dish Network, tonight will be the final night to watch until a new contract is reached.

The dispute comes from Dish Network relaying our signal to their subscribers. Each of Dish Network's customers pay a fee of five dollars a month to receive local channels. Dish Network receives revenue for transmitting channel 3 to you.

KIDK feels they should get a small portion of that service charge.

"We're talking literally pennies a day. We only think that it's fair. We do the work, they make the money off of our signal, our operations, our news, our programming. We should then in return get a very, very small portion of that in return back to the station," says KIDK General Manager, James Wareham.

Dish Network was unavailable for comment, but KIDK's general manager tells me their rebuttal is the signal is free of charge over the air and anyone with an antenna can watch it.

KIDK isn't alone in this situation.

"It's common all over the country from the largest markets, to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, right down to Idaho Falls. Television stations are asking for and they're getting a small percentage of the fees that both cable and satellite providers charge," says Wareham.

Causing many Dish customers and Channel 3 viewers to be unhappy about the situation.

"I'm paying them five dollars a month to have the local channels and now they're trying to take them away from me so I wasn't too happy about it," says Dish Network subscriber, Carolyn Hansen.

Big Dog Satellite has also been in the crossfire as a retailer of Dish Network.

"Its out of our control as well. We've complained about this as much as anyone else to try and keep this from happening. It's between the corporate offices and the little guys don't have much of a say," says Big Dog Manager, Chad Stegelmeier.

"It's a very unfortunate circumstance but we've gone out of our way to try to not have that happen. Our company has offered extensions and so forth to Dish. But it seems to be coming to a head that the possibility is that later on today or tonight that they'll actually take us off the service," says Wareham.

KIDK's parent company, Fisher and Dish Network will continue to reach an agreement for a new contract.

Until then, our newscasts and all of your favorite CBS shows will be unavailable through DISH.

We want to remind you that you can still get our local news with an antenna or cable, and from our website everyday at

[templetonstoy]

I have a feeling Dish and the others are going to start feeling the bite from more and stations (especially the PBS stations) that provide signals for free, and sooner or later, they're going to have to give in. People are going to re-evaluate the econonmic sense of paying these providers for something they (the providers) get for free. It's a pain in the patootie to switch off the stb to watch local programming, but I'll bet for $60 a year, viewers can make the sacrifice.