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For the past few weeks, we have received inquires from readers who also happen to be Men's Outdoor & Recreation (MOR) viewers via DISH satellite network. MOR, they told us, had "disappeared off DISH". They wanted us to find out when MOR might be returning.

We checked into it and learned there were ongoing negotiations happening between DISH and MOR. We were also told both parties hoped to have the matter resolved "soon."

Yesterday, a terse news release announcing that Turner Media Group (a/k/a The Media Group), parent company of Men's Outdoor and Recreation - and seven other networks - had entered a petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The Media Group release gave no explanation for the reason for the filing, simply stating that the TMG had filed for Chapter 11 protection in order to "reorganize the companies, restructure its obligations and promptly repay all of the debts legitimately owed."

The filing itself, however, leaves little doubt as to the company TMG felt left them no alternative but to seek court protection. That company: EchoStar, the parent company of DISH. As the filing states:

"Up until January of 2007, TMG was a thriving business with annual billings in 2006 of approximately $200 million dollars and ZERO debt. In late 2006, despite a long-term preceding relationship of nearly a decade absent any failure or default on the part of TMG and during which TMG generated and delivered to EchoStar nearly $1 billion in revenue, TMG's largest client, EchoStar, demanded that TMG amend its network carriage agreement, only one year into its five-year term and enter into certain written agreements imposing numerous onerous and burdensome terms and conditions upon TMG."

TMG filed a number of accompanying "first day" motions, essentially petitions to the court that allow the company to use a portion of proceeds to achieve a "smooth landing" in Chapter 11. TMG's first day filings included motions to continue to pay employees and provide all their benefits, both good signs.

Men's Outdoor & Recreation is still programming, available via cable television, local stations and DirecTV to more than twenty-million U.S. households, even without DISH network. But no one has denied the loss of DISH has had an impact. TMG's programming, however, has built heavily on emerging technologies, and has produced results for their advertisers. Unfortunately, set top boxes such as those used by DISH network are integral elements in those expanded abilities. For advertisers who have seen demonstrable results from those expanded technologies, the loss has been, at the least, disconcerting.

For some time, cable industry observers have made two complaints: there were too-many networks programming outdoor television, and the programming ranged from good to lousy.

Because of those fragmentations, an already niche audience has been badly fragmented, along with potential advertising revenues. That created a very predatory marketplace, with pitched battles fought over increasingly dwindling ad budgets as companies repurpose their advertising budgets to the myriad of emerging technologies.

In the technology arena, MOR had demonstrated the ability to compete with even the newest wrinkles in web-centered technology.

Their decision to drop subscriber fees appeared to be giving them advantages with cable operators. With Outdoor Channel, the largest of the outdoor cable networks, in negotiations with cable operators that represent sixty percent of its audience, it seemed MOR's revenue model was getting traction with cable operators.
The recent acquisition of The Sportsman Channel by Intermedia Outdoors further fueled industry speculation. With a single investment, the company that owns and produces the most outdoor television programming suddenly acquired a programming outlet, albeit a small one. That has only injected more uncertainty into the outdoor television world.