Dish Loses 3 of 4 Claims Against ESPN in Contract Dispute
This article is for subscribers only.
Dish Network Corp. lost three of four claims it brought against Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN over terms of a sports programming contract, as a jury awarded Dish only $4.85 million of the $153 million it sought.
Satellite service Dish, the third largest pay-television provider, sued ESPN in 2009 for violating a so-called most-favored-nation clause in their distribution agreement, which it said requires the sports network to offer Dish the same terms it offers a competitor. The 10-person jury in Manhattan federal court reached the verdict yesterday in its second day of deliberations.