Lifetime, EchoStar stall on Dish pact

January 24, 2006
Boston Herald

Cue the tears. The divorce between Lifetime Television and the Dish Network appears final.

Negotiations for a new contract that would have put Lifetime and the Lifetime Movie Network back on EchoStar's satellite service system broke down over the weekend as the two continued to hurl bitter accusations at one another.

EchoStar Communications Corp, claims that the channel demanded an "outrageous" 76 percent fee increase to stay with the distributor. Lifetime dispures that number saying that it asked for just a nominal increase. Lifetime executives said talks broke down when EchoStar demanded a cut in rates.

Executives at the popular women's channel say EchoStar is depriving its viewers of urgent public service announcements as well as reruns of "The Golden Girls" and "Designing Women."

EchoStar replaced Lifetime Movie Network with Oxygen and said it will premanently replace Lifetime Channel by month's end.

Lifetime launched a campaign to urge viewers to leave Dish.

"We haven't seen a dispute in a long time go to this level," said Bruce Leitchman, head of the Leitchman Research Group based in Durham, NH. "It's a calculated risk that Dish is taking and that Lifetime is taking."

EchoStar, with 12 million subscribers, is the third biggest provider in the country behind DirecTV and Comcast. The satellite company has an estimated 50,000 viewers in Massachusetts.

Whatever will I do without my daily fix of "The Golden Girls"!? :crying:

Sorry, I know that there are plenty of people who enjoy(ed) Lifetime programming, my mom being one of them. I could, as you can probably tell, care less :p

It may make room for 'better' channels. The others may want to be more competitive and capture the old LT audience. Has not real effect on my menu choices anyway. Maybe one will go HD and blast them good.

Maybe we can convince DN to drop at least 50 or more channels the majority don't watch or care about? Maybe the monthly cost would decrease? Ala Carte for me...but, it will never happen.

Walt Disney Company and Hearst Publications own the Lifetime Network channels....what I'm confused about is..Disney also owns many other channels that are currently able to be watched on Dish Network.I'm surprized this Lifetime fight has'nt hurt the other Disney owned channels too.Why did'nt Disney take off those other channels? :confused:

Went back to DirecTV today.
My installer said he was seeing a lot of Dish users changing..

Went back to DirecTV today.
My installer said he was seeing a lot of Dish users changing..

Because of losing Lifetime? Sheesh.

Because of losing Lifetime? Sheesh.

Seriously. Those Lifetime spousal abuse movies get old real quick. Definitely not worth switching to D* over

Went back to DirecTV today.
My installer said he was seeing a lot of Dish users changing..
Over the loss of Lifetime? That's pretty pathetic.

Good riddance I say. :D :D :D

I watch Lifetime only when I use to flip the channels to get to another channel...nothing substantial on there ever caught my eye.

People churn between Dish and Direct all the time. Probably 30% of my installs are Direct people switching to Dish.

I don't think Lifetime will cause any large amount of people to switch providers. When you can only get 20 people to show up for a protest in a city of more than a million, that pretty much tells you how much Lifetime means to people.

And those 20 need a life. An HD life!

I don't think Lifetime will cause any large amount of people to switch providers. When you can only get 20 people to show up for a protest in a city of more than a million, that pretty much tells you how much Lifetime means to people.They organized a protest?! They don't make a smiley-face thingy to express my reaction to that! :D

Lifetime and LMN are back on now, I guess E* gave in. So we as Dish customers win, because when they thought lifetime would be gone from the lineup for good they added oxygen, made Encore Love "free" and are adding hallmark movie network soon, wow! :yippee:

I still could of lived WITHOUT the Lifetime channels..but I'm happy they're back.I guess I kind of appreciate them more now that they're back on.

What I'm confused about is..I already had the Oxygen Network channel before this Lifetime problem. I had the America's Everything Package-now known as The Platimum Package.

It's not like Oxygen Network was'nt on Dish..because it was..atleast in my Dish package it was...so I heard Dish expanded it to more subscribers.That's good.I rarely watch the Oxygen Channel/Network.

I have the everything pack too, but I didn't get Oxygen, thats weird
:confused:

Relax, Charlie and the Chicky babe channel kissed and made nice. Lifetime is back in the top 60 and higher has of last night, and Lifetime Movie channel is only on the top 180. Which brings me to the next point, who cares?????? Thelma and Louise, should have driven the car off the cliff in the first 30 seconds, and saved all of that film for a real movie.