EchoStar to End Distant TV Service

EchoStar's legal woes continued Tuesday as the U.S. Supreme Court denied the company's request for an emergency stay of an injunction barring it from rebroadcasting local television channels to its customers who live in distant locales where reliable over-the-air reception is not possible.

Both DISH Network, which is owned by EchoStar, and DirecTV offer the major networks from large market stations to subscribers who cannot receive them over-the-air. However, networks say that both companies are providing the service to those who can receive the channels via broadcast, which is a violation of copyright.

While the company has struck deals with NBC, CBS, and ABC, Fox and a group of independent stations led by the National Association of Broadcasters decided to move forward with the case. A federal court judge initially ruled that the system could remain as long as EchoStar make changes to determine eligibility, but an appeals court overturned that ruling, which the Supreme Court refused to block.

In its court filing, EchoStar said a decision against it would affect hundreds of thousands of customers, and would do "irreparable harm" to the company if the judgment was not stayed. "Large numbers of subscribers who will be deprived of access to network broadcasting programming are likely to cancel their remaining EchoStar satellite services," it wrote.

EchoStar fears these customers will not return even if the decision is reversed by the Supreme Court. However, the company will press on and appeal the ruling to the high court, although its likely hearings wouldn't begin until late fall. That means those subscribing to the service would lose the broadcast networks for at least several months.

The satellite provider will be fighting an uphill battle -- a appeals court panel said EchoStar violated the law "in every way imaginable," and was likely providing the service illegally to at least a fifth of its subscriber base. As of June 30, DISH Network had 12.46 million customers.