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Yeah Direct Tv playing dirty ball here I think their just jealous that Dish is gaining on them. So right now it seems they will do anything to slow Dish down so if folks want to point the finger well its just not all on Dish's end.



http://www.forbes.com/global/2006/1211/038.html?partner=yahoomag


Rupert Murdoch finds a way to knock out satellite service to U.S. customers of rival Charles Ergen's EchoStar.

On Dec. 1 EchoStar (NASDAQ: DISH - news - people ) will be required to slash national network programming to an estimated 900,000 satellite customers in mostly rural areas in the U.S. Overnight they could lose Desperate Housewives, Dancing with the Stars and every version of CSI.

If those viewers are upset, imagine how Charles Ergen feels. He's the chief executive of EchoStar who stands to lose millions of dollars in revenue, not to mention a bit of his ego. That's because the hidden hand behind the cutoff is Ergen's longtime nemesis Rupert Murdoch, who controls satellite competitor DirecTV and runs Fox Broadcasting.

At issue in this long-running battle is something called "distant network signals." EchoStar, with 12.8 million customers, and DirecTV, with 15.6 million customers, offer local broadcasts in some 170 markets in the U.S. If viewers live outside those markets and can't get their local stations using an old-fashioned TV antenna, the satellite companies are legally allowed to sell them feeds from New York or Los Angeles.

But the broadcasters accuse EchoStar of selling distant signals to customers even if they can receive local stations. They don't like that because every viewer in Provo, Utah who is watching Survivor from a Los Angeles CBS affiliate is missing the advertising on the Provo affiliate.

Ergen has taken a liberal view of the law for years, betting he could win in court. But in May a federal appeals court ordered EchoStar to cut off all distant network signals, even though only an estimated 25% of affected customers receive the signals illegally. Ergen settled with stations owned by ABC, NBC and CBS and affiliates, agreeing to pay them $100 million to let him continue offering distant signals.

But 25 Fox-owned-and-operated stations refused to agree to the deal, which killed the entire settlement. A News Corp. spokesman says that the company saw no reason to settle and denied that Murdoch's 40% ownership of DirecTV had anything to do with Fox avoiding the deal.

Media research firm the Carmel Group estimates that if all 900,000 customers switched to DirecTV, EchoStar would lose $700 million per year, and Murdoch would gain the same amount. The company says it doubts it will lose anywhere near that number.

The two media titans have been duking it out since 1997, when Murdoch backed out of a deal to buy EchoStar. Six years later Murdoch gained the upper hand with his $6.6 billion purchase of DirecTV just one year after the feds rejected Ergen's bid to buy the rival company.

Ergen can find solace knowing that Murdoch's days of antagonizing him may be coming to end. Murdoch is poised to trade his stake in DirecTV to yet another media mogul, John Malone. Other speculation suggests that in a few years Malone will also try to scoop up EchoStar, allowing both Murdoch and Ergen to finally retire quietly to their corners.