Fox goes dark on Dish Network, could affect promising pilots

Fox has now gone dark for 12 million Dish Network and Sling TV subscribers, threatening the success of its promising pilots.

Fox and Dish Network has picked a bad time to go to war with each other.

According to Deadline, Fox-owned stations in 17 television markets, as well as its sports properties, have gone dark on Dish Network and Sling TV over a carriage dispute. The blackout affects 12 million Dish subscribers and more on Sling TV’s internet-based service.

The Fox/Dish dispute couldn’t have come at a worse time for the network.

The Masked Singer, Fox’s leading singing competition, premiered to solid ratings, and the network, for the first time in a few years, has a slew of pilot premieres that looks to pull the network from lower-rung of network television. Shows like Bless the Harts and the Prodigal Son, along with the aforementioned Masked Singer and Empire, carries a lot of promise that Fox could get out of its rating slump this season.

All that seems to be threatened, however, with the dispute, which is the latest in a round of carriage disputes networks and broadcasters have had with satellite carriers.

Nexstar and AT&T, who owns Direct TV, recently ended a months-long stalemate and the growing weariness of blackouts over carriage disputes could drive more TV customers to either “cut the cord” (disconnecting from traditional cable providers), in which Hulu and YouTube are trying to carve out a market for cable TV, and non-traditional startups who are promising no local television blackouts.

In the meantime, however, the Fox/Dish dispute could have the negative aspect of seriously hurting any momentum Fox had in trying to get its primetime lineup off the ground in a great way. It still can, but it first needs to agree with Dish to make sure that its promising lineup remains viable.