Charlie Ergen was caught between a “rock” and a hard place when his Dish satellite-TV service agreed to carry Cablevision’s Voom channel package.
Cablevision founder Chuck Dolan testified yesterday that Ergen seemed “enthusiastic” about the high-definition service — with the notable exception of one rock-music channel, called Rave.
“There was a rock concert in Canada. He said we repeated it too often,” the 85-year-old Dolan testified. “Everyone knew Mr. Ergen didn’t like rock.”
Dolan was the first witness in a Manhattan state court trial over now-defunct Voom, which cost Cablevision a half-billion dollars back in 2007.
Cablevision sued Dish for $2.4 billion in 2008, accusing it of violating a 15-year deal to carry Voom’s programming. Voom is now part of Cablevision-controlled AMC.
Lawyers for Dish, formerly part of EchoStar, claim that EchoStar pulled out of the venture because Cablevision didn’t spend the agreed-upon $100 million on programming.
“It was crystal-clear we’d spend $100 million on ‘the business,’” AMC Networks boss Josh Sappan, who ran Voom, testified yesterday.
Cablevision executives said they spent $100 million on the business as promised, while Dish said it should have all gone to programming.
Dish is trying to undermine Cablevision’s case in part by arguing that Voom’s programming was of poor quality.
Under their contract, Ergen agreed to pay $3.25 — escalating 5 percent a year through 2020 — for every HD customer it signed to a $20-a-month package.
As that service grew to 1.5 million customers, Cablevision believes the contract simply became a bad deal for Dish.
Also, other channels started offering HD feeds for free, making it less appealing to keep paying Cablevision.