Dish Network removes Nexstar's local TV stations in 115 markets over failed negotiations

Dish Network customers have fewer channels as of tonight—for the time being.

At 7 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, Dish removed from its system the network and local programming provided by the local television stations owned by Nexstar Media Group after failed contract negotiations.

Nexstar owns 164 local stations—including ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC network affiliates—in 115 markets, covering about 63% of TV homes.

"We made a fair offer to keep Nexstar stations available to our customers, but Nexstar rejected it," said Group President of Dish TV Brian Neylon in a statement.

For its part, Nexstar released a statement saying Dish was refusing to reach a new distribution agreement. A fact disputed by Neylon who continued to say Dish "offered to extend the current contract and hold subscribers harmless while negotiations continue—once at 11:53am MST and again at 3:11pm MST—but Nexstar never responded."

The contract between the two companies expired Dec. 2. Dish says Nexstar is asking for "over $1 billion in fees for stations that are available for free over the air," while Nexstar claims the other is proposing "rates that are less than fair market value."

AT&T and broadcaster Tegna also failed to reach a new agreement Tuesday, resulting in more than 60 stations lost on DirecTV, AT&T U-verse and the AT&T TV streaming service.