Walt Disney Co.'s Disney Enterprises Inc. and Liberty Media Corp.'s Starz Entertainment are separately suing a division of Dish Network Corp. for offering Starz cable network programming free to Dish subscribers.
Disney filed its suit against Dish Network LLC late Monday in a federal court in Manhattan, alleging Dish violated Disney copyrights by offering Starz free. Starz Entertainment, which enters into long-term license agreements with movie studios, filed suit against Dish Tuesday in a Colorado District Court for breach of contract.
Dish began the Starz offering in February.
Disney Enterprises is seeking to prevent Dish Network from offering its "numerous" motion pictures to Starz subscribers free.
Disney had granted Starz Entertainment rights to exhibit some copyright movies of Disney Enterprises in January 2010, as long as Starz operated as a premium, or pay television, service, according to the suit.
In its suit, Starz said that, because Starz and Encore channels are "pay television" premium channels as agreed to with those studios, it does not "permit Dish to simply give away its channels and content to its entire subscriber base."
Starz also enters into agreements with the distributors of its services to subscribers of cable and satellite-television services, like Dish.
Neither Disney nor Starz consented to Dish's "scheme" to provide its subscribers with Starz programming free, according to the Disney suit. So far, Dish has shown "Alice in Wonderland," "Toy Story 3," and "Up," among other movies owned and licensed by Disney.
In an emailed statement, Dish said it "pays hundreds of millions of dollars for the right to distribute Starz content to our customers, which includes the rights to a number of Disney movies, and our current distribution of Disney content on Starz is permitted under our contract with Starz. Dish Network does not have visibility to the contract between Starz and Disney, but we will vigorously defend our rights against any attempt to drag our customers into the middle of their dispute."
Disney contends it depends on the ability to control the time, place and manner of its movies' exhibition.
Disney filed its suit against Dish Network LLC late Monday in a federal court in Manhattan, alleging Dish violated Disney copyrights by offering Starz free. Starz Entertainment, which enters into long-term license agreements with movie studios, filed suit against Dish Tuesday in a Colorado District Court for breach of contract.
Dish began the Starz offering in February.
Disney Enterprises is seeking to prevent Dish Network from offering its "numerous" motion pictures to Starz subscribers free.
Disney had granted Starz Entertainment rights to exhibit some copyright movies of Disney Enterprises in January 2010, as long as Starz operated as a premium, or pay television, service, according to the suit.
In its suit, Starz said that, because Starz and Encore channels are "pay television" premium channels as agreed to with those studios, it does not "permit Dish to simply give away its channels and content to its entire subscriber base."
Starz also enters into agreements with the distributors of its services to subscribers of cable and satellite-television services, like Dish.
Neither Disney nor Starz consented to Dish's "scheme" to provide its subscribers with Starz programming free, according to the Disney suit. So far, Dish has shown "Alice in Wonderland," "Toy Story 3," and "Up," among other movies owned and licensed by Disney.
In an emailed statement, Dish said it "pays hundreds of millions of dollars for the right to distribute Starz content to our customers, which includes the rights to a number of Disney movies, and our current distribution of Disney content on Starz is permitted under our contract with Starz. Dish Network does not have visibility to the contract between Starz and Disney, but we will vigorously defend our rights against any attempt to drag our customers into the middle of their dispute."
Disney contends it depends on the ability to control the time, place and manner of its movies' exhibition.