Rainbow Media Holdings Files Suit vs. Dish Network

Cablevision Systems-Owned Programmer Seeks Injunction Barring Satellite-TV Provider from Moving Voom HD Networks to HD Tier

By Anne Becker -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/27/2008 12:57:00 PM

Rainbow Media Holdings filed a lawsuit seeking a preliminary injunction barring Dish Network from moving its Voom HD Networks service to a lower tier. EchoStar owns Voom’s satellite.

The Cablevision Systems-owned programmer appealed earlier this month to New York State Supreme Court judge Richard Lowe for further intervention on Dish Network’s decision to move its HD service’s 15 channels to a less-distributed HD tier.

Earlier in an ongoing dispute between the two, the same judge granted Rainbow a restraining order preventing Dish Network from changing its contract with Voom and moving the channels.

The spat pits corporate cousins against each other -- EchoStar bought Voom’s satellite from Cablevision for $200 million in 2005. It currently offers the Voom channels on its “Dish HD Ultimate” tier.

Such lawsuits are not uncommon. Two months ago, Mark Cuban’s HDNet settled a similar suit with Dish Network competitor DirecTV over the satellite company’s effort to move the network to a new tier devoted solely to HD networks.

“Because we are in the midst of ongoing litigation with EchoStar, it would be inappropriate for us to comment further at this time,” a Rainbow spokesperson said in a statement.

EchoStar declined to comment on the matter.