WBAY, the ABC-affiliated TV station in Green Bay, has been dropped by TV provider DISH Network, part of a nationwide blackout of Gray Media-owned stations on the satellite broadcast service amid a contract dispute between the two parent companies.
Colorado-based DISH Network and Atlanta-based Gray Media on March 10 couldn’t finalize terms of its retransmission consent agreement. A March 11 news release by Gray Media said a deal was nearly reached after several months of negotiations. These agreements are typically renewed before they expire. Should contracts lapse, however, the TV service provider must stop carrying stations until an agreement is reached, according to the Federal Communications Commission.
As contractual terms weren’t finalized, DISH Network dropped Gray Media and its TV stations in over 100 markets, including Gray Media’s four stations in Wisconsin: WMTV in Madison, WSAW in Wausau, WEAU in Eau Claire, and WBAY, Green Bay’s first TV station and second in the state that first aired on March 17, 1953…