Stand-off Between Sports Nets And Distributors On The Horizon

With less than five days to go, Fox has yet to finalize Fox Sports 1 carriage deals with Dish Network, DirecTV, and Time Warner. When FS1 was announced this spring, they promised it would be on the current Speed channel. But now Fox has announced they will keep Speed going as punishment to those providers who don't shell out for FS1, offering a watered-down version that's just reruns of Pinks and Pimp My Ride (which was basically full-fledged Speed). Fox is looking for a raise from $0.23 per sub for Speed to $0.80 per sub, with an increase to $1.50 later.
Of course, Fox-owned Awful Announcing is keeping their mouth shut about this, but they are reporting Dish Network may have issues with ESPN at the end of September. The argument revolves around a raise from $5 per sub to $7 for ESPN, with an increase up to $8 later, and Dish may react by pulling all Disney networks and ABC stations.
Read more at Sports Business Daily and Awful Announcing.