[Guest]

A federal court hearing on Disney's legal fight with EchoStar, and the satellite TV company's push to drop ABC Family from the DISH Network lineup, was postponed in order to give both sides a chance to work out a deal.

The hearing was originally set for March 11, and was postponed until March 18 in an effort to give the companies time to negotiate a deal. The hearing has been postponed for another two weeks, according to the companies.

EchoStar has said that it wants to drop ABC Family from its lineup. The company has been in a bitter dispute with Disney on carriage of the channel and other networks, such as ESPN Classic.

From SkyReport (Used with permission)

 

[MarkA]

Personally I think that this is getting crazy. They just need to solve it already! It's been months.

 

[Mark Holtz]

Maybe they are hammering out an agreement that reduces the rate of increase Dish has to pay for the ABC/Disney channels in exchange for carriage of channels.

 

[MarkA]

Today is two weeks! Any news?

 

[Mark Holtz]

From what I've heard, one week extension.

 

[TNGTony]

Yep! Another extension to 4/8/02. They are still battling it out!

Any bets that this action never sees the inside of a court room?

See ya
Tony

 

[pmichael]

I think one of Ergen's problems is the ABC Family channel's programming has improved over the last few months. It's now alot harder to make the argument the channel is a waste of space. I expect Ergen will make a deal and keep the channel. I could be wrong though, I would have predicted he would have come to an agreement to carry YES.

 

[MarkA]

pmichael, that doesn't matter. A channel being a waste of space is not a legitimate reason to break a contract. But it may be that he no longer wants to drop it as badly...

 

[Karl Foster]

If I were a Dish sub, I'd be incensed that they are considering dropping stations and not lowering rates. If we lost ABC Family, my family would have a coronary. How arrogant is Charlie that he decides what is a waste and what isn't? Just because he doesn't like a station (ESPN Classic, ABC Family) doesn't mean his subs don't.

 

[psecic]

Dishnetwork and ABC have come to terms. Not only will they carry the Family Channel but also ESPNClassic.