KTKA

"Especially football season, that's a bad time to be going out," said Patrick Pruett, Dish Network subscriber.

Pruett was looking forward to day of relaxing at home and watching bowl games.

"I figured there was some football on your channel, we turned over and there was nothing there except some guy explaining something," Pruett said.

That guy is Eric Sahl. He is the the vice president of programming for Dish Network. If you are a Dish Network subscriber he's just about all you'll see on KTKA, for now. Sahl's message is clear, he says KTKA's parent company is asking for too much money to carry ABC on Dish Network.

"You've probably tuned in today to see your local ABC station KTKA Channel 49...We no longer have the legal right to carry this station. I can assure you that at Dish Network, we've made every effort to reach an agreement for continued carriage of this channel," Sahl said.

But Patrick Knorr, chief operating officer of KTKA's parent company, Free State Communications, sees the Dish blackout as a negotiating tactic.

"They're choosing to take a heavy-handed route and try to strong arm a small company, which they even communicated to us that we're a small company, we're in a small market and we're independent, so they don't feel they need to negotiate with us or pay us in the same manner they pay larger broadcasting companies," Knorr said.

Knorr says that KTKA's parent company is asking for about 25 cents per subscriber and Dish's counter-offer has been closer to 15 cents per subscriber.

To Pruett, it's the viewers who really lose.

"Everybody wants money, especially in this economy, it just annoys me that they can't reach a decision.There comes a point in time where you say enough's enough," said Pruett

Pruett doesn't know who to blame, but hopes the blackout will end soon. Both sides say it's up to the other to decide how long the stalemate will last.