Satellite giant Dish Network Corp said it is suing Comcast Corp's NBC Universal for breach of contract and expects to file for arbitration to avoid NBC from blacking out its channels such as Bravo and CNBC.
On Monday, Dish struck back with a lawsuit after NBC launched a messaging campaign to alert Dish clients that its locked negotiations with the cable company over a new carriage contract could result in a blackout of its programming this weekend.
Deadline reported that NBC issued a one-sentence statement regarding Dish Network's lawsuit, which sought arbitration in their carriage dispute, saying if Dish proceeds with the arbitratio, the company will participate in the process and will look forward to receiving the fair market value of the company's portfolio of networks.
Dish said in a statement that NBC's messaging campaign against Dish over the past 24 hours are in violation of the contract between the two companies. Dish and NBC are battling over the monthly price per subscriber the satellite operator would pay to carry channels from NBC. According to Reuters, Dish said that the complaint relates to current distribution renewal negotiations with NBC Universal.
The blackout would mean that subscribers of Dish in Los Angeles region would no longer receive the two NBC-owned stations, TV Channel 4, Spanish-languaged Telemundo and KNBC - as part of the programming package from Dish as early as Sunday.
Los Angeles is Dish's largest market with about half a million subscribers, reports The Los Angeles Times. However, the outage would also affect millions of Dish subscribers around the US.
The lawsuit filed in US District Court in Chicago consists of 11 pages which accuse NBC of ignoring its contractual obligation by involving the public with calls to action. NBC is not available for comment at the moment.
In 2014, Dish was also involved in a similar contract dispute with CBS. While Comcast's shares changed a little as $59.40, the shares of Dish Network closed down about 1 percent at $48.58.
