Many here may not be all that aware or care about Dish Network, a U.S.-only based satellite service not available in Canada. But its battles are intensely fascinating and I've been following them for years. It's run by Charlie Ergen, a maverick (some would say cheapskate) CEO who's extremely polarizing and has been involved in countless standoffs like this over the last few decades, as station ownership groups demand more money for the right to let Dish carry their signals. 

Ergen insists he's doing this to keep costs down for subscribers but in the end, the monthly bills still seem to keep going up. His most famous standoff was with WarnerMedia's HBO. The most popular pay cable service had never been dropped by any cable or satellite company in its 34-year history, until Ergen got into a war with AT&T (which just happens to own WarnerMedia, HBO and rival DirectTV - no coincidence there!) and the pay giant was dropped from Dish.

That dispute lasted almost three years (!) and was only recently settled late last month, with both sides finally coming to an agreement that also involved HBO Max. 

No matter how much his customers in affected markets complain about losing channels, Ergen refuses to give in and these blackouts of certain stations can last for weeks or months - often years - even as some customers defect to other services and never come back.

It's an amazing war most here aren't even aware of. And it seems that, as long as Ergen is in charge, it's never going to end.