EchoStar settles 9 year litigation, forced to payout another $100 million

Posted August 29, 2006 at 07:58 PM by Doug Berger

Section: Home Audio, Household

We’ve got to say, EchoStar (owner of DISK Network) has not had a good couple of weeks.  A couple of weeks ago, they paid out $90.6 million to TiVo for patent infringement, and this week, they’ve agreed to pay $100 million to network affiliates (ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox) so they don’t shut off “distant network channels.“  According to the press release, “Distant channels are ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox network channels that originate from a market outside the community in which the subscriber lives.“

With the announcement, EchoStar has now reached settlements with almost 800 channels and hopes to be done with the 9 long years of litigation.  I cannot possibly imagine how relieved their lawyer is.

Quick Fact: EchoStar has paid out about 1.3% of their 14.33 billion market cap in just 2 weeks.