'Ditch' Campaign Heats Up, Times Ad Says Dish Doesn't 'Value Women'

Lifetime launched another salvo in its "ditch Dish" campaign, a day after Dish offered to make the female channel available to all subscribers on an "a la carte" basis.

Lifetime ran an "A" section ad in The New York Times accusing Dish of failing to "value women" by carrying 180 channels, but not Lifetime Television and Lifetime Movie Network. "We're disappointed that Dish apparently believes that women's programming and women customers are worth so little," the ad read. It also urged Dish customers to switch to competitors DirecTV or cable, and pointed people to Lifetime's Web site for discounts and incentives.

Dish and Lifetime have been embroiled in a visible dispute over how much satellite operator Dish would pay Lifetime to carry the two channels. Dish blacked out the two networks on Jan. 1, and the parties are at an impasse. Dish has said that Lifetime Movie Network has been permanently replaced, and Monday said it was willing to make Lifetime Television available to all 12 million subscribers "a la carte." Under that proposal, Dish users could have the Lifetime channel for free by request, and Dish would pay Lifetime a fee for every subscriber who wants it. But cable programmers are largely opposed to "a la carte" menus.

Dish did not immediately return a call for comment.

advertisement

advertisement

Next story loading loading..