Appeals court: EchoStar not barred from lease deal

ATLANTA -- Federal law does not bar satellite television provider EchoStar Communications Corp. from leasing a transponder to another company to transmit network signals, a U.S. appeals court ruled Monday. CBS Corp.'s CBS Broadcasting subsidiary, News Corp.'s Fox network and other major network affiliate groups sued EchoStar 10 years ago in South Florida to prevent the Englewood, Co.-based company, which operates the DISH satellite network, from providing distant network signals to customers who can receive local affiliates' broadcasts through regular antennas. The Satellite Home Viewer Act of 1988 allowed carriers such as EchoStar to provide secondary transmissions of copyrighted distant network programming to "unserved households," those that could not otherwise receive the signals. After a two-week bench trial in 2003, the... [read full story]