DISH CUSTOMERS MAY LOSE CHRISTIAN NETWORK PROGRAMMING
Depending on a judge’s decision, EchoStar may be required to remove its 2 Christian networks, DayStar and Family Net, from its Dish Network programming lineup, a spokesman said. EchoStar is in litigation with Dominion Video Satellite, owner of the Sky Angel Network, over terms of their contract.
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Judge John Kane of U.S. Dist. Court, Denver, granted a preliminary injunction Wed. evening ordering EchoStar to end its carriage of DayStar and FamilyNet until it resolved its dispute with Dominion through arbitration. EchoStar asked for a stay of the injunction Thurs., the spokesman confirmed, saying both stations would remain available until the appeals court made a decision.
EchoStar and Dominion have been in business together since 1996 through a lease and programming agreement, the judge said. At the heart of the dispute is an exclusive programming clause under which DayStar would be available as a separate subscription service offering “Christian programs” exclusively to customers via EchoStar’s set-top box equipment, Kane said. Dominion CEO Robert Johnson said the agreement left no leeway for additional programming for either side: “Even if we wanted to take some of our Christian channels and replace them with Fox News or the Family Channel, which we don’t, [EchoStar] wouldn’t let us do that. But they just arbitrarily picked 2 Christian channels and put them on their package.”
EchoStar said in its defense that its carriage of the additional channels was within the bounds of the contract, the judge said. EchoStar also said that, based on a Communications Act requirement that DBS providers use at least 4% of their capacity to offer noncommercial, educational or informational programming, the broadcast of Daystar wasn’t actionable, the judge said. “EchoStar denies FamilyNet is a ‘Christian program’ [and] to describe FamilyNet as anything other than Christian-religious programming is absurd… By analogy, one would have to say that Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’ is not a religious painting because it merely portrays 13 men having dinner,” Kane said.
Johnson said Dominion planned to file a response this week to EchoStar’s request for a stay. The arbitration could last 3-4 months, he said, but the company was prepared: “If we win the arbitration, the injunction will become permanent. We believe we have an extremely strong case.”