EchoStar And Disney Fight Goes To Court

from the can't-settle-stuff-on-their-own dept

EchoStar is accusing Disney of trying to force them to pay "hush money" to keep Disney from publicly siding against EchoStar in their bid to buy DirecTV. The real battle is apparently about EchoStar's decision to drop two of Disney's channels (ESPN Classic and ABC Family) from their lineup. Disney came back and said that unless those channels were kept in the lineup, Disney might come out against the merger deal. EchoStar says they're dropping those two channels because Disney has raised the price on channels like ESPN. It's always fun to watch when private corporate arguments disintegrate into lawsuits and accusations of things such as "hush money".