Last month, I posted about DISH
Network parent company EchoStar losing a court ruling on some TV transmissions
and then settling
with the all of the parties involved except for stations owned and operated
by News Corporation's Fox Network. Now the Frontiers of Freedom Institute, a
public policy foundation dedicated to promoting free market principles and the
ideals embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, is
urging Congress to investigate the News Corporation???s refusal to contribute to
the resolution.
After pulling out of the settlement discussions last week and stating that
it has no intention of rejoining negotiations with EchoStar, Fox recently filed
a motion with the Federal District Court in Miami relating to an earlier Court
decision, requesting that the Court issue a nationwide, permanent injunction
barring EchoStar from delivering any ABC, CBS, NBC or Fox distant network
signals to nearly one million consumers. The Institute feels that Fox???s action
is designed to derail the settlement agreement that EchoStar entered into with
the broadcast affiliates. They contend that such an aggressive legal filing
does not make sense if Fox were legitimately concerned about retaining viewers
in its own markets, rather than enabling its sister company, DirecTV, to
benefit from an unfair monopoly. The Institute is calling on Congress to
investigate whether the News Corporation???s actions are in violation of
anti-trust laws.
???Congress must step in quickly and investigate whether the News Corporation
is acting in violation of anti-trust laws in order to protect the interests of
hundreds of thousands of rural consumers. Without quick Congressional action,
the News Corporation could put itself in the position of holding nearly a
million consumers hostage," said George Landrith, president of Frontiers
of Freedom. "One of the reasons this is so frustrating is that time and
again rural consumers are treated unfairly, especially when it comes to their
television viewing options. Now, hundreds of thousands of mostly rural
Americans who have come to rely on distant network television signals will soon
be deprived of these signals.???
Read more about the issue in the press release News
Corporation???s Unfair Conduct is Holding Rural America Hostage: Innocent Rural
Consumers Will Lose Their Distant Network Signals.
