Northwest Montana DISH Network subscribers remain without their local NBC station as negotiations drag on between Bonten Media Group and DISH.

The bottom line, NBC Montana General Manager Dick Reingold said, is that the dispute may take a long time to resolve.

That’s not good news for DISH subscribers who already have been without Sunday night football and their favorite NBC shows since early December.

And there’s no guarantee the dispute will be resolved in time for the Winter Olympics in February.

The NBC blackout for DISH subscribers began when NBC Montana for the first time ever was unable to renew its agreement with a television provider before the contract deadline.

“We’re continuing to talk to DISH, but we’re not sure when it will be resolved,” Reingold said.

While NBC Montana, owned by Bonten Media Group, has never been shut out of programming, similar kinds of TV contract disputes have “played out in different ways and different time frames across the country,” he said.

“We’ve gone past the shorter duration of some of them [other contract disputes],” Reingold said. “What we’re asking for is exactly in line with agreements we have with other distributors.”

The dispute doesn’t affect DirecTV and cable customers or viewers who receive the NBC Montana signal through antennas.

Reingold said he’s had calls and emails from DISH subscribers who say they’re switching to DirecTV or cable, but hard numbers aren’t available about how many subscribers are affected by the blackout.

DISH’s website discourages subscribers from jumping ship.

“Let’s be clear,” a DISH online advisory states. “Switching your TV provider is not the answer. All pay-TV providers face disputes with program providers. Switching only encourages programmers to raise rate demands and drives up the costs for everyone.”

DISH posted its last update on the dispute on Dec. 13, saying “we have been speaking with Bonten multiple times every day. We are working as hard as possible to restore these channels quickly.”

At the heart of the service disruption is how much NBC Montana — of which Kalispell’s KCFW is a part — is asking to be paid by DISH for its programming. As part of its onscreen message, DISH writes that “Bonten is demanding 3 times more than their current rate for the same content you already have.”

Reingold said that figure is misleading.

“When you’re dealing with small numbers, percentages can be made to look large though they’re much less than the actual money involved. What we’re asking is a couple pennies per day per subscriber per month,” he said.

Historically the major networks paid their local affiliates to carry their programming, but that has changed in recent years. These days the business model is flipped, Reingold explained, with local stations paying the networks for their programming.

Negotiations are ongoing between the chief executive officer of Bonten Media Group and the top executive of DISH.

“Part of why these negotiations are so important for all network affiliates is that we’re the ones dealing with DISH today,” Reingold said, adding that tomorrow it could be another affiliate dealing with a programming provider.

“We’ve done dozens of these agreements and have never been forced off of the system,” Reingold said. “These are multi-year, typically long-term contracts because both sides want certainty of carriage for their customers.”

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.