High court won’t hear EchoStar appeal

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court refused Monday to consider an appeal by satellite television provider EchoStar Communications Corp. of a nationwide injunction barring it from transmitting network television signals.

The Court’s decision is the latest step in a nine-year legal battle between Englewood, Co.-based EchoStar, which operates the DISH satellite network, and the major television broadcast networks and their affiliates. Federal law allows satellite television companies to provide network signals to their customers who are unable to receive local network broadcasts. Such customers are usually rural residents who live beyond local network broadcast areas.

The television networks — including Fox Broadcasting, owned by News Corp., and affiliates of NBC, CBS and ABC — have argued, however, that EchoStar has violated the law by providing network signals to customers who are able to receive the broadcasts through regular antennas.

A federal appeals court ordered a lower court to impose the injunction in May 2006 and the injunction took effect Dec. 1. The appeals court also strongly criticized EchoStar, noting that “we have found no indication that EchoStar was ever interested in complying” with the law.

In its filing with the Supreme Court, EchoStar argued that the injunction unfairly prevents approximately 850,000 of its customers who are eligible to receive the network broadcasts from viewing network television.

Meanwhile, EchoStar also said in November that it has provided satellite capacity to a separate company, National Programming Service LLC. The National Association of Broadcasters, which represents the major networks, has accused EchoStar of circumventing the injunction by allowing the disputed network signals to be transmitted by National Programming over EchoStar’s equipment.

•TiVo Inc. and Comcast Corp. on Monday unveiled the long-awaited fruits of an agreement to work together: A cable box that runs TiVo’s digital-video-recorder software.

The collaboration between the largest U.S. cable operator and TiVo was announced to great fanfare in March 2005 and has been considered one of the most significant deals for the DVR pioneer. TiVo has been facing tough competition against a growing number of less expensive DVRs from cable and satellite TV operators.

Soon, for an additional fee, Comcast subscribers will be able to add TiVo DVR features to their existing set-top boxes without a visit from a technician, Comcast said.