A U.S. District Court Judge on Friday dismissed lawsuits brought by Circle City Broadcasting charging that DirecTV and Dish Network discriminated against Circle City because it was a Black-owned business.
Circle City owner Dujuan McCoy said he planned to appeal the decision. He also said he would work to prevent satellite-TV providers DirecTV and Dish from merging.
Circle City acquired WISH and WNDY in Indianapolis from Nexstar Media Group for $42.5 million in 2019. Around the time of the purchase, Nexstar signed new retransmission consent deals with the satellite providers. Those deals stated that if WISH or WNDY were sold, their retransmission rights would no longer be governed by the Nexstar agreements, according to court papers.
That meant Circle City had to make new deals with DirecTV and Dish.
DirecTV said that it did not pay retrans fees to standalone non-Big Four network stations and offered to carry it without paying a fee. WISH is an affiliate of The CW; WNDY carries MyNetwork TV. Dish offered a lower price, noting that Nexstar had much more leverage in retrans negotiations than Circle City did.
Circle City argued that the reason it was being offered less for its retrans rights was because the stations were now owned by a Black-owned business.
Chief Judge Tanya Walton Pratt of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana granted summary judgments to both DirecTV and Dish in separate but similar decisions.
“While Circle City did not like how DirecTV chose to negotiate with it, nothing in the record connects any of these actions to some form of racial animus or intent to discriminate based on race,” Pratt ruled in dismissing the suit against DirecTV.
“We are pleased Judge Pratt recognized our non-discriminatory approach to retransmission consent negotiations with Circle City Broadcasting,” DirecTV said in a statement. ”Our differences have always been economic, and this positive ruling reaffirms our commitment to negotiate in good faith while constantly striving to keep costs as low as possible for our customers.“
In the Dish case, Pratt pointed out that Melisa Boddie, VP of programming, handled the negotiations for Dish. Boddie is “a Hispanic woman who is married to a Black male, made no ‘racial comment’ during negotiations and was perceived by McCoy as being ‘polite, civil, and courteous,’ ” Pratt noted.
“There is no evidence in the record to either support the claim that racial discrimination caused Dish or Boddie to discriminate against Circle City or create a triable issue of fact,” Pratt said.
Pratt also ruled that Circle City and Nexstar are not “similarly situated” companies, as Circle City contended.
“There is no dispute that Nexstar, as the largest broadcasting group owning Big Four stations, holds leverage and a negotiating position that far exceeds Circle City’s,“ the judge wrote. “Though Circle City attempts to present Boddie’s statements as Dish’s admission that ownership did not matter, the size difference between the two companies clearly and reasonably influenced negotiations.”
In its negotiations with two other distributors, cable operators Comcast and Charter Communications, Circle City agreed to rates lower than Nexstar had been getting, according to the decision. Dish had been offering zero dollars for retransmission and made a last-minute offer that amounted to only pennies per subscriber that was rejected by Circle City.
After the ruling, McCoy maintained his stance that the satellite companies discriminated against Circle City.
“Although we are disappointed in the court’s ruling, I have always known as one of the few Black media entrepreneurs in America that the fight for equality in media is always going to be difficult,” McCoy said in a statement. “We firmly believe that Dish and AT&T [which spun off DirecTV but still owns a major stake] are both discriminatory companies in contracting. Separately and individually they discriminate!”
McCoy noted that there have been statements by Dish chairman Charlie Ergen that he is seeking a merger with DirecTV.
“If they discriminate individually, they will surely continue and increase their discriminatory practices as one company,” McCoy said. “We plan to appeal this decision as well as do everything in our power to prevent their rumored merger from happening. It would be a sad day in media if regulators allowed this rumored monopolistic transaction to consummate.” ■
