With their blackout now in its second week, DISH Network Corp. filed a complaint against TEGNA Inc. with the Federal Communications Commission.

Filed Oct. 18, the complaint asserts that the station group operator has negotiated in bad faith and appears to be demanding that DISH pay for all subscribers in a local market whether they purchase local programming from the distributor or not. TEGNA's demands would have totaled nearly a billion dollars in fees, according to DISH.

For its part, TEGNA called DISH's complaint "utterly baseless and without merit," and said it welcomes the chance for the FCC to review the distributor's conduct over the course of this negotiation.

"The real issue at hand is the need for DISH to stop short-changing their customers by serially dropping valued stations and instead reach fair, market-based deals with programmers like TEGNA," the station group said in a release.

The parties disconnected Oct. 8 when they could not come to terms on a retransmission renewal. Since then, 63 TEGNA stations in 51 markets have been unavailable to some 3.4 million DISH subscribers.

Kagan, a media research group within S&P Global Market Intelligence, estimates TEGNA could face the loss of some $123 million to $164 million annually from this revenue stream should the disconnect continue for a full year. The estimate assumes an average of between $3 and $4 per subscriber per month in retransmission-consent fees, which pay TV operators pay to broadcasters to carry local station signals.

The last time the parties faced an expiring retransmission contract toward the end of 2018, there was a 12-hour blackout before the pair reached a new pact on Dec. 3 of that year. Financial terms were not disclosed, but that retrans renewal restored 49 TEGNA stations to DISH.

In addition to apparently asking for payment across subscribers in all local markets, DISH's complaint states that TEGNA is demanding a massive rate hike (the figures were redacted in the public complaint) even though there has been a "material decrease" in the stations' viewership among DISH subscribers.

Additionally, TEGNA has refused to grant retrans renewals for its CBS (US), ABC (US), NBC (US) and FOX (US) affiliated station unless DISH also conveys the signals for its stations tied to The CW (US) and MyNetworkTV (US), as well as those operating independently. DISH said TEGNA wants it to pay higher rates for the latter group, billing them as "unwanted stations."

According to the complaint, TEGNA is also demanding that DISH agree to launch future stations, regardless of whether the distributor has the bandwidth capabilities.

Given the ongoing service disruptions, DISH is seeking expedited treatment of the complaint and wants the FCC to impose forfeitures and award DISH such relief the agency "deems just and appropriate."

TEGNA said it made a comprehensive proposal to DISH months ago, which it has updated several times, reflecting rate reductions. DISH, though, has declined to counter and has not proposed rates in more than three weeks, the station group stated.

DISH, according to TEGNA, is repeating the pattern that resulted in the distributor dropping more than 230 stations last year.

The retrans dispute with DISH coincides with TEGNA's review of multiple takeover bids from Apollo Global Management Inc. and Standard General LP, as well as media mogul Byron Allen, who is partnered with Ares Management Corp.

While TEGNA and DISH have been disconnected for 10 days now, the satellite distributor and Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. continue to work under a carriage extension dating to mid-August that has kept channels from the nation's second-largest operator on air. The parties are also reported to be trying to find common ground that could result in a restoration of the regional sports networks owned by Sinclair to DISH's lineup. Sinclair declined to comment.