Super Bowl Update

Dish Network and Sinclair Broadcast Group announced this morning that they have reached an agreement in principle for Dish to continue carrying Sinclair's television stations, including KBSI-Fox 23 (Cape Girardeau, Mo.), WDKA-My49 (Paducah, Ky.), KDNL-ABC30 (St. Louis), and the Nashville Fox-MyNetwork TV-CW trio of WZTV, WUXP and WNAB.

There will be no station blackout for Dish's subscribers.

While the details of that new agreement are hammered out, an extension has been put in place and the old deal will carry forward.

As the deadline for Dish Network and Sinclair Broadcast Group to reach a new carriage deal looms ever closer, tempers are beginning to flare.

On Monday, Sinclair warned viewers that they could lose its stations, including several in Paducah, Cape Girardeau, St. Louis and Nashville - the opening salvo in what could be a prolonged battle.

Then Dish fired a volley of its own, claiming that Sinclair's demands for its channels simply aren't reasonable. "We carry more than 1,800 local broadcast stations nationwide. Sinclair is asking for more than any other station anywhere in the country," said Dave Shull, Dish's senior VP of programming. "This goes beyond pure corporate greed - it's profoundly insensitive to the needs of the public."

That was enough for Sinclair, and the company this afternoon replied that Dish isn't telling the whole truth. Here's part of the company's rather lengthy statement:

The prospects of a new deal look pretty dim at this point.

UPDATE, 6:25 p.m.: Customers of Wabash Independent Networks (WIN) in part of Southeastern Illinois would lose St. Louis ABC affiliate KDNL if Sinclair pulls its stations from Dish Network.  This is because WIN gets its local channels from the satellite provider.  WIN's subscribers in Clay and Marion counties as well as the cities of Flora and Xenia will be affected if no new agreement is reached.  Customers in the other WIN service areas receive ABC affiliates from either Terre Haute or Evansville.

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PREVIOUSLY: Sinclair Broadcast Group has begun informing its viewers that it does not expect Dish Network to continue to carry any of its stations - including those in Paducah/Cape Girardeau, St. Louis and Nashville - after Sinclair's existing carriage agreement with Dish ends on Wednesday.

Although Dish and Sinclair have been negotiating for quite some time in an effort to reach a new agreement, at this time it does not appear that these efforts will be successful.

"We are very sorry that we have not been able to reach agreement with Dish and regret the inconvenience this will cause to Dish subscribers who want to continue to watch the extremely popular programming that airs on our stations," Sinclair said in a statement Monday afternoon. "We wish to remind these subscribers that numerous other means exist for receiving our stations, including your local cable provider, DirecTV, and in some markets either Verizon FiOS or AT&T U-verse, as well as over-the air."

Sinclair owns and operates several stations in this part of the country, including two in the Paducah/Cape Girardeau area (KBSI-Fox 23 and WDKA-My49), one in St. Louis (KDNL-ABC30) and three in Nashville (WZTV-Fox 17, WUXP-My30 and WNAB-CW58).