GolTV in Contract Dispute with DISH

MIAMI/ENGLEWOOD, August 4:
The Spanish- and English-language soccer channel GolTV has been removed from
the DISH Network lineup, after the satellite platform and pay-TV network were
unable to come to terms on a new contract.

GolTV says that DISH
pulled the plug on Friday, August 1. The football channel maintains that the
platform was attempting to “impose unreasonable contract demands and terms on
the independent and privately-owned minority network.” The move comes amid live
coverage of the Emirates Cup and ahead of 2010 World Cup Qualifiers and the
kick-offs for the La Liga and Bundesliga seasons.

The channel had been part
of DISH’s America’s Top 250 and DISH Latino packages. “DISH Network has
demonstrated total disregard for independent networks, the millions of soccer
fans we represent, and minority-owned businesses by this action,” said Rodrigo
Lombello, GolTV’s COO. “We urge upset DISH viewers to contact us or DISH to
voice their concerns.”

According to local
reports, meanwhile, DISH maintains that GolTV “refused to offer to negotiate a
fair and reasonable price for continued carriage.”

GolTV is available on a
host of other platforms in the U.S., including DIRECTV, Time Warner Cable,
Comcast, Cox, Verion FiOS and Cablevision.

GolTV is not the only
channel embroiled in a dispute with DISH. Earlier this year, Rainbow Media’s
VOOM HD Networks suite of channels filed suit after being dropped from the
platform.

Last year, meanwhile,
Court TV (now truTV) was briefly pulled from the service amid a contract
dispute, and the year before it was Lifetime that went missing from the lineup
for several weeks. And in 2004, DISH subscribers lost the entire portfolio of
Viacom channels for about a week.

—By Mansha Daswani