As we noted this morning, Dish and NBC are the latest companies to engage in some ugly public bickering after failing to come to terms on a new programming contract. NBC has threatened to pull its content off of Dish and SlingTV by Sunday if Dish isn't willing to pay up, but Dish has now responded with a lawsuit claiming that NBC's recent media campaign against Dish violates the two companies' existing contracts.
"NBC's public statements against DISH over the past 24 hours are in violation of the contract between the two companies," Dish said in a
statement posted to the company's website. "Today, DISH filed a breach of contract lawsuit against NBC to address those violations."
According to Dish, the company says it intends to file for arbitration, which would require that NBC keep its content (which includes SyFy, Bravo, MSNBC and other channels) available during the length of the negotiations process.
"Under the conditions imposed by the FCC and Department of Justice in approving the Comcast-NBCUniversal merger, NBC is forbidden from blacking out its networks if a pay-TV provider chooses, in its sole discretion, to exercise its right for binding arbitration," claims Dish. "In the event of arbitration, affected programming would remain available during that process, and for the foreseeable future."
Comcast/NBC Universal on Monday launched
a website attacking Dish for failing to meet NBC's programming cost demands. 2016 is poised to set yet another record in these kinds of contract disputes, which put customers in the middle of an ugly debate while simultaneously cutting users off from content they're paying for. The debates are usually settled when a confidential new deal is struck, and the rate hikes are quickly passed on to consumers.