EchoStar Wins Stay In Appeals Court

30-Nov-00

EchoStar Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH, DISHP) expressed satisfaction with a stay order issued last week by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. That order prohibits ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and their network TV affiliates from taking the right of free choice away from consumers who want to watch network channels that originate outside their hometown. The action by the Court of Appeals means that an injunction recently issued by a Miami federal court on behalf of the networks cannot be enforced at least until the Court of Appeals has more time to consider the important constitutional questions that are raised by limitations on consumer free speech that have been demanded by the networks and their affiliates. The Court of Appeals will also consider other important issues that EchoStar has raised on appeal. In the lawsuit and appeal, EchoStar, with assistance from preeminent constitutional scholar and Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe, has challenged the constitutionality of portions of the Satellite Home Viewer Act (SHVA). EchoStar has also raised a variety of other constitutional and legal deficiencies in the Miami court's ruling. ""It is disappointing that the networks and their affiliates, who have historically been so supportive of free speech, have attempted to trample this most fundamental constitutional right of consumers to receive televised news and other information from whatever source they choose,"" said Charlie Ergen, Chairman and CEO of EchoStar. ""EchoStar will continue to fight to protect the rights of consumers."" The problem stems from a 1998 lawsuit in which the TV networks demanded that the Miami court prohibit EchoStar from providing ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX programming to consumers, unless the programming originates from the network affiliate located nearest to the consumer's home. The networks contend that if consumers can receive an acceptable signal from their local network TV station using a massive roof-top antenna, then the consumer should not have the option of obtaining programming from the same network which originates in any other city. While every consumer in America has the right to buy a newspaper printed outside their hometown, the broadcasters want to prohibit the same consumer choice and access to information when it comes to television. The networks further demand that the standard for what constitutes an acceptable television picture be based on surveys of consumer attitudes concerning picture quality which were performed in the 1950s when many Americans did not even own a TV and when the ability to see any television signal was considered by most consumers as a ""good"" signal. In a recent filing with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the FOX network went so far as to say that there is no evidence ""showing that viewer expectations of picture quality have changed significantly over the past 50 years,"" as if it could turn back time and deny the significant changes in consumer expectations with respect to television picture quality that have occurred over the last half-century. The networks also demand that consumers be subjected to even more onerous restrictions on their television viewing than those required by Congress and the FCC. In September, the Miami federal court entered an order requiring EchoStar to shut off distant network channels to an unspecified number of consumers. ""We knew that the Miami court decision was not well reasoned and had not given fair consideration to consumer rights when it ordered that limitations on consumers' constitutional rights be implemented by dates that had passed six to nine months prior to the court's issuance of the order,"" Ergen added. ""We were shocked when the Miami court specifically said that it wanted to take programming away from consumers whom Congress had expressly permitted to receive that programming."" EchoStar will continue to work hard to overturn the Miami court's order so that not even one more consumer is denied his or her right to receive distant network programming. The Eleventh Circuit has expedited its consideration of EchoStar's appeal. Briefing by both sides is expected to be completed by early January 2001, with further action by the Court of Appeals expected thereafter. For more information about EchoStar, visit www.echostar.com.

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