A $153 million contract dispute between Dish Network Corp. and ESPN Inc. ended with something of a whimper on Feb. 28. After nearly three weeks of trial in Southern District court pitting Barry Ostrager of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett for Dish against Diane Sullivan of Weil, Gotshal & Manges for ESPN, a 10-person jury sided with ESPN on three of the four claims in the case, awarding Dish just $4.85 million on the remaining claim in Dish Network v. ESPN, 1:09-cv-06875.
Dish filed the suit in 2009, claiming that ESPN breached a "most-favored nation" clause in the companies’ licensing contract by offering competitors better terms for networks such as ESPN Classic and Spanish language station ESPN Deportes. "ESPN provided more favorable terms to Dish’s competitors and made a calculated decision not to offer those same terms to Dish," Ostrager told jurors on Feb. 27 as Dish wrapped up its case.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.
For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]
