ECHOSTAR SETTLES SUIT WITH CBS OVER DISTANT NETWORK SIGNALS
EchoStar has settled a 6-year-old suit with CBS-TV that sought to bar it from providing distant network signals. The settlement -- reached this month and disclosed in EchoStar’s 10-K report filed at the SEC -- is the 3rd the satellite service provider has reached with TV networks.
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Five of the 8 networks and affiliates that filed suit against EchoStar in 1998, including Fox, haven’t reached an agreement. ABC-TV and NBC-TV resolved suits involving EchoStar in 2002. Terms of the settlements haven’t been disclosed. The networks filed suit in U.S. Dist. Court, Miami, in Dec. 1998, seeking to block EchoStar’s transmission of distant network signals. The suit alleged that the transmissions violated the Satellite Home Viewers Act (SHVA) and infringed programming copyrights. The judge granted a preliminary injunction in Sept. 2000, a decision overturned by the 11th U.S. Appeals Court, Atlanta, a year later. But the appeals court rejected EchoStar’s First Amendment challenge to SHVA.
EchoStar’s qualification procedures for distant network subscribers largely complied with SHVA, Judge William Dimitrouleas held, after an April 2003 trial. He required, however, that EchoStar re-qualify subscribers who receive distant network signals from ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox. EchoStar is appealing the part of Dimitrouleas’ decision that terminated the rights of those subscribers who had received distant network signals before Oct. 1999 to continue doing so. A hearing before the 11th Circuit was held Feb. 26.
Meanwhile, the Cal. Supreme Court last week denied a petition for review of a lower court holding of no “triable issues” in a 1999 suit that had alleged violations of the Cal. Consumer Legal Remedies Act and Cal. Business & Professions Code in EchoStar’s use of the terms “crystal clear digital video” and “CD-quality audio” and the number of channels in programming packages.
The Cal. Appeals Court decided a “reasonable consumer” standard should be applied to the state laws. The plaintiffs, Californian David Pritkin and the group Consumer Advocates, had argued for a “least sophisticated” consumer standard.