Dish Network & ROH Parent Company Sinclair Broadcasting's National Dispute Continues

There is an on-going issue between Dish Network satellite company and Ring of Honor's parent company, Sinclair Broadcasting, which has seen Dish temporarily dropping all Sinclair Broadcast stations which air ROH Wrestling, including those in major markets such as Seattle, Portland and St. Louis. The two sides have been negotiating for the past several weeks, and according to Variety.com who did a write-up on the piece, Sinclair Broadcasting requested that Dish pull its signals to its channels because Sinclair is negotiating to purchase an unidentified cable station and want the stations blacked out in an attempt to gain leverage.

The blackout has resulted in the loss of more than 129 local stations on the Dish Network. The two sides had agreed a truce to continue airing Sinclair stations until this week when the channels went black. According to Deadline.com earlier today, the FCC held a meeting with representatives of both parties in an attempt to rectify the situation as more than 72 markets have been left without local access television due to the blackout.

The cable channel in-question Dish alleges Sinclair wish to buy is still unidentified. Sinclair Broadcasting is the largest telecommunications company in the United States and is trading on the stock market today at $25.61 a share. Sinclair purchased ROH from Cary Silkin in summer 2011 airing it in over 40% of the United States on their local stations and a further 5% on other stations such as WATL in Atlanta, Cox Communications stations and New England Sports Network. Ring of Honor also airs every Wednesday at 11/10c on Destination America.