The Fox Affiliate Association, led by board chairman Brian Brady, has hired Washington, DC-based law firm Dow Lohnes to help the affiliated stations negotiate a relationship with their parent company.

“With the ever changing relationship between the Fox Network and its affiliates coupled with the paradigm shift in the industry, the board felt strongly that it needed legal representation to help navigate the sea change,” Brady, who is also the CEO of Northwest Broadcasting, said in a statement.

The relationship between Fox Broadcasting and its affiliates has been particularly rocky lately, with Fox insisting its affiliated stations pay a portion of the retransmission fees they receive from cable and satellite operators.

“The Fox affiliates have played a critical role in the success of the Fox Network, due in part to the strength of the Fox Affiliate Association,” Dow Lohnes partner Kevin Latek told TVNewsCheck. “The association is now working hard to ensure that Fox affiliates continue to excel in today’s dynamic media marketplace.”

Fox network is threatening to drop some affiliates if the stations do not agree to share a cut of the retrans fees they receive from cable and satellite operators.

According to Bloomberg:

Without an agreement on a new fee schedule, Fox “will have to pursue different distribution channels to receive fair value for our programming and continue to serve our viewers,” Michael C. Hopkins, president of affiliate sales and marketing, said in a Feb. 4 letter to station owners.

Fox’s aggressive stance is part of News Corp.’s plan to wring additional revenue from its broadcast unit.  Chase Carey, News Corp.’s president and COO, said recently that he thinks the Fox network should look more “like a cable network” with “two meaningful streams of revenue–subscription and advertising.” Read more