Circle City Broadcasting is continuing its battle with Dish Network, resisting Dish’s request to redact the fact that Dish was offering to pay “zero dollars” to carry Indianapolis stations WISH and WNDY from a decision dismissing Circle City’s discrimination lawsuit against Dish.
In the ruling, Judge Tanya Walton Pratt noted that “Dish refused to contract with [Circle City] for the payment of fees for that right, for the longest time offering zero dollars, and at the eleventh hour offering only pennies per subscriber.“
Lawyers for Dish Network notified the court and Circle City that they want those last 17 words removed from the public record.
WISH covered the situation on its website with the headline: “Exposed: 17 words Dish Network doesn’t want you to read.”
The story says that Dish wants to conceal the information from viewers and from Dish subscribers, who have been unable to watch the Circle City stations via satellite for three years.
How much distributors pay to carry TV stations and networks is usually a closely guarded secret.
Circle City owner and CEO DuJuan McCoy sued Dish and DirecTV charging that the satellite companies were refusing to pay retransmission fees for WISH and WNDY because they were now owned by a Black-owned company.
The satellite companies paid for the stations when they were owned by Nexstar, which sold them to McCoy.
In similar rulings, Pratt dismissed both cases. “There is no evidence in the record to support the claim that racial discrimination caused Dish to discriminate against Circle City or create a triable issue of fact,” she ruled.
McCoy said he would appeal the decision.
