Kukla's Korner Hockey

More On OLN, DISH and Cablevision

by Paul on 10/21/05 at 08:37 AM ET
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from the Hollywood Reporter via avsforums,

A three-way brawl over National Hockey League games has broken out among Comcast, Cablevision and EchoStar, which on Thursday ejected the Comcast-owned OLN channel from its Dish Network lineup.
Earlier this month, Comcast began replacing NHL games scheduled on the channel with other OLN programing on systems run by Cablevision and EchoStar. The two distributors were put in Comcast’s penalty box because they put OLN on channel tiers available to fewer than 40 percent of their subscribers, according to a Comcast spokesman.
Sources said EchoStar stunned Comcast brass by yanking the channel without warning. Company executives flew to the satellite service’s Denver headquarters Thursday to negotiate a truce, but after 10 minutes of discussion, EchoStar ended the meeting, citing an unspecified crisis.
By the time the Comcast delegation’s plane touched down at its home base in Philadelphia, EchoStar had issued a statement signaling its intent to pull the plug.
Cablevision has no plans to pull OLN, according to a spokesman. But the operator isn’t giving up the fight, either. “We continue to carry OLN, and we continue to call upon them to cease their illegal electronic blocking of hockey games in New York,” the spokesman said.

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