Federal Judge Rejects Racial Discrimination Claims Against Dish, DirecTV
A federal judge in Indiana ruled in favor of Dish Network and DirecTV in a pair of racial discrimination suits brought by Black-owned broadcaster Circle City Broadcasting over the MVPDs’ carriage of several Indiana TV stations. Chief U.S. District Judge…
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Tanya Walton Pratt for Southern Indiana in Indianapolis granted motions for summary judgment from the MVPDs Friday. Pratt found in both cases that Circle City didn’t provide sufficient evidence that the lack of a carriage deal with either company was based on racial bias. When Nexstar owned the stations, they were carried by Dish and DirecTV, but after Circle City bought the stations, it was unable to reach carriage agreements with the satellite companies. DirecTV told the court it has a standing policy against paying for carriage of stand-alone Big Four stations, while Dish said the rates Circle City was requesting were too high. Circle City CEO DuJuan McCoy told us he plans to appeal the decision, and also called on the FCC to block a rumored combination of Dish and DirecTV. “If they discriminate individually, they will surely continue and increase their discriminatory practices as one company. We plan to appeal this decision as well as do everything in our power to prevent their rumored merger from happening.” A Dish-DirecTV merger has been the subject of media speculation for years. Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen regularly gets asked about it during quarterly Dish earnings calls, and customarily responds by saying that he thinks it's "inevitable" Dish and DirecTV will become a single company one day.