HDNet Drops FCC Request for Conditions on Liberty-DirecTV Deal
Move Follows Settlement of Dispute with Satellite TV Provider
By Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 12/7/2007 4:50:00 AM
HDNet has withdrawn its request to federal regulators that special conditions be set on Liberty Media’s $11 billion purchase of News Corp.’s 40% stake in DirecTV.
HDNet Thursday told the Federal Communications Commission that it is no longer seeking the special conditions because it had settled its dispute with DirecTV, the nation’s largest satellite provider.
Mark Cuban’s HDNet on Thursday settled a lawsuit it had filed last month in a Texas court against DirecTV, which stemmed from the satellite provider’s plans to move the network and its sister service HDNet Movies a new $4.99 tier of a half dozen “HD-only” channels.
Under the settlement, HDNet will remain on DirecTV’s broadly distributed $9.99 HD Access package of more than 80 HDTV channels. HDNet Movies will move onto the new HD Extra Pack, which is $4.99 a month on top of the $9.99 for HD Access.
HDNet lawyers, in ex parte filings with the FCC last month on the Liberty Media-DirecTV deal, accused the satellite provider of trying to “kill off” the network by moving it onto the HD Extra Pack, which is not likely to have as much penetration as HD Access.
“The proposed transaction cannot be in the ‘public interest’ as required by law without the addition of conditions to protect independent programmers carried by DirecTV at the time this application was filed,” HDNet said in its FCC filing.
For example, HDNet has asked the FCC to require DirecTV to continue to carry the network for four years after approval is granted for the Liberty Media deal.
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