Court: EchoStar must stop delivery of distant signals

Ruling might affect television habits of some Dish viewers

Joyzelle Davis, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 25, 2006 at midnight

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EchoStar was ordered by a federal appeals court to stop delivering distant signals of Fox, NBC, ABC and CBS television networks in a decision that could affect hundreds of thousands of Dish Network customers.

The Atlanta-based appeals court decision came in an eight-year-old dispute over whether EchoStar was violating TV broadcasters' copyright protections under the Satellite Home Viewer Act. The act allows the delivery of distant signals only to homes that can't receive their home market station's signals with a rooftop antenna.

The networks claimed EchoStar was wrongly providing distant signals to homes not covered by the law who simply wanted the convenience of time shifting. For example, a subscriber on the West Coast could watch The Tonight Show with Jay Leno three hours early by viewing the NBC New York affiliate feed.

Douglas County-based EchoStar said it was disappointed with the ruling.

"While consumers are free to choose to read The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle or any other newspaper regardless of where in the United States they live, broadcasters successfully orchestrated passage of special interest legislation which prohibits consumers from watching network channels originating in other markets," the company said in a statement.

EchoStar spokeswoman Kathie Gonzalez declined to say how many of Dish Network's 12 million subscribers would be affected. The ruling said that EchoStar would have to discontinue signals to as many as 630,000 ineligible homes, but that number is several years old and has likely declined as Dish has expanded its local footprint, said Craig Moffett, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein.

"Since neither the number of subscribers affected nor the mix of those who can and can't receive locals is known, the magnitude of the problem is unclear," Moffett wrote in a note to clients.

Douglas County-based EchoStar said it has reached settlements over the years with about 800 TV stations across the U.S., including all of those owned by CBS, NBC and ABC. EchoStar said it will renew talks with the National Association of Broadcasters and the remaining stations to "try to satisfy all of their concerns without harming consumers."

The unanimous decision by the three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had harsh words for EchoStar, saying the company failed to make good on promises to stop the practice.

"As if the magnitude of its ineligible subscriber base were insufficiently disconcerting, we have found no indication that EchoStar was ever interested in complying with the act," the panel wrote. "EchoStar has disregarded the limitations of its statutory license and sought to avoid its obligations under the act at every turn."

At issue

• Dish Network was barred by a federal appeals court from delivering distant network-TV signals to some subscribers.

• EchoStar said it does not know how many subscribers' homes are affected.

EchoStar

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davisj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2514

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