Voom Settlement?

wolfjc

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Apr 23, 2006
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Cincinnati
From Deadline Hollywood:

AMC and Cablevision’s breach of contract case
against Dish for dropping the long defunct VOOM HD channels has been kicking around for years, but now is due to go to trial in September. And the smart money is starting to bet that Dish will settle to avoid being creamed in a case where the plaintiffs are seeking to split $3.5B in damages. That was one of the main drivers behind this morning’s decision by Susquehanna Financial Group’s Vasily Karasyov to raise his rating on AMC shares to positive from netutral, and his price target to $49 from $42. His company’s litigation analyst, Thomas Claps, says that Dish “is facing significant headwinds” as a result of two pre-trial rulings “which could cripple its liability and damages defenses.” The judge in the case has decided to tell the jury that Dish “destroyed potentially critical evidence in the case” and say they can infer that the evidence “would have been unfavorable to Dish.” In addition, the court will not allow Dish to include testimony or a report from its main damages expert. As a result, Karasyov believes Dish will settle — possibly before the October season premiere of AMC’s popular series Walking Dead — with the satellite company paying far less than $3.5B but resuming its carriage of the programmers’ channels including AMC, IFC, and WE.

Bernstein Research’s Craig Moffett also weighed in on the case this morning as he lowered his stock price target for Dish to $26 from $28. He’s now baking in a pre-tax loss of $1B. Moffett says that Dish will have a harder time than it did in its patent infringement case with TiVo using appeals and other legal maneuvers to delay its day of reckoning. The rules are different for a tort case than for a patent infringement one. And under New York State law, if the plaintiffs win, then Dish would have to escrow cash before it can appeal — and pay interest on it, which could be as high as 9%. He’s also betting on a settlement: “Cases involving spoliation of evidence rarely go to trial because the odds are so skewed against the offending party,” he says.
 
I don't know. It all depends on how much is "chess" and how much is genuinely bad blood. I get the feeling Charlie would like to be done with AMC. I'm sure AMC carriage will be in the negotiations but it wouldn't surprise me for Charlie to go against advice, throw extra into the settlement, and walk away.
 
From Deadline Hollywood:Bernstein Research’s Craig Moffett also weighed in on the case this morning as he lowered his stock price target for Dish to $26 from $28. He’s now baking in a pre-tax loss of $1B.
That "loss" of $1 billion will only be temporary. It will be made up by Dish customers, one way or another. Make no mistake about that.
 
With the free Roku and credits, it's already a win-win situation if it ever comes back on Dish anyway. I wouldn't have missed it til October at all, and now don't care.
 
I know on the face of it, making a deal before court and using the non carriage of channels seems to makes sense. But I'm having trouble believing the AMC channels or channel will be back anytime soon, unless you mean the DISH "Soon." I think it would have to be one hell of a deal in favor of Dish not paying anywhere near the estimated amount. It has to at least make a dent to AMC that they are no longer on Dish, and longer the dispute with Viacom the more AMC has to worry Direct won't just pay either. So with side of it, maybe there can be solution.
 
The AMC channels will be used as a bargaining tool.

It's all a game of chess. Just too bad we the consumers are the pawns.
Just another reason why the recent carriage dispute had very little to do with cost of carriage.

I know on the face of it, making a deal before court and using the non carriage of channels seems to makes sense.
Yes it does.

I think it would have to be one hell of a deal in favor of Dish not paying anywhere near the estimated amount.
$3.5 BILLION is a lot of money. If they can knock 30% or more from it in return for carriage at market rates, that's over a BILLION dollars.
It has to at least make a dent to AMC that they are no longer on Dish, and longer the dispute with Viacom the more AMC has to worry Direct won't just pay either.
Quite the opposite. DirecTV can't afford to lose any more channels. And, judging from the relatively quick and easy negotiations with ATT, it doesn't seem like AMC is asking for anything ridiculous.
 
Meh. I'm glad to see DirecTV stand up against the ever rising costs by dropping Viacom. I hope they stay off, too. And if dropping AMC won't send customers to Dish, it's all the easier to do.
 
I sure hope Dish has a big nest egg for a settlement!The tivo lawsuit did cost dish customers quite a bit in fact.We are still paying for it with the dvr fees and higher equipment fees.
 
Just another reason why the recent carriage dispute had very little to do with cost of carriage.
I dont honestly believe that the removal had anything to do with the costs. As far as I know DISH did not have any talks with them about price after they notified them they were planning on taking down the channels. I do not believe (and I could be wrong) that there were ANY negoations going on.
 
I've been involved in contractual lawsuits and if Dish is able to show that the Voom agreement programming requirement was not met, they stand a good chance of winning even if the judge stands on his head and shouts to the jury that Dish is a big ol' meanie. Drop Cablevision into the transcript and the chances improve even more. :)
 
I have been on a case were the judge told us to take into account the destroyed evidence that can proof contract violation.

We awarded triple the damages.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I've been involved in contractual lawsuits and if Dish is able to show that the Voom agreement programming requirement was not met, they stand a good chance of winning even if the judge stands on his head and shouts to the jury that Dish is a big ol' meanie. Drop Cablevision into the transcript and the chances improve even more. :)

You're absolutely correct...VOOM should, and will, lose this case if they didn't meet the spend requirement. However, there is no doubt VOOM spent more than 100M annually on the service (this fact is undisputed and fully supported by Dish's Oct 2007 Audit) and the evidence is overwhelming that they exceeded the spend requirement based on the dozens---if not hundreds---of artifacts exchanged prior to, during, and after the affiliation agreement was signed. Remember, the court ruled the agreement to be "ambiguous" when it came to spelling out how the spend requirement were to be calculated (cost accounting methods, etc.) and that the court would reply on other artifacts (pre/post agreements, appendices, references, accounting methods, financials, emails, etc.) exchanged in order to determine what both parties knew and could reasonably assume the spend requirement to mean. Some of these documents are public records (filed on eCourt), many are sealed with the court, and other emails (some inadvertantly captured during discovery of other litigation) were destroyed by Dish.

Offhand, I don't see how Dish/SATS claim of "We thought the 100M spent requirement only applied to programming and not shared administrative and overhead expenses" when they were provided with full disclosure of VOOMs accounting methods prior to (emails, pre-affiliation agreement), during (referenced in affiliation agreement) and after (they received financials from VOOM for almost 3-years). Regardless, if the verdict goes VOOM's way then Dish will largely be unable to defend itself againt damage claims since their expert witness was dismissed from testifying by the court. Regardless of whether or not Dish wants to settle and/or if terminating AMC is a settlement strategy...I get the feeling Cablevision wants these case to go to trial at this point. We shall see...
 
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