Satellite TV provider not required to offer credit when channels go dark
Expanded base. Choice. Choice more. Cable and satellite TV customers pay monthly fees for bundled channel packages of different sizes. Packages are becoming “leaner”, allowing you to customize your service from a number of modules (for example, the Family package, the Sport package, various language packages, etc.). But each module is still a package of preset channels.
Meanwhile, class action attorneys have launched a series of cases to try to “break the pack.” Antitrust attacks have had mediocre results. See for example, Branley AND cablevision. And now the Eighth Circuit has flatly rejected claims that bundled monthly service contracts are “illusory” or include an implied guarantee of consistently delivering the same lineup of channels.
In Stokes v DISH Network, LLC, customers filed a lawsuit against DISH after Turner and FOX News channels went “dark” on DISH for about a month each during the 2014-2015 licensing disputes. The customers claimed to have paid for the advertised package and, therefore, either (i) DISH was required to credit the customers for the missing pieces of the package or (ii) the entire paid monthly service was based on an illusory promise and, therefore , unenforceable.
Read the full post on our Minding Your Business blog.