Business

Dish deal cookin’

Dish Network’s Charlie Ergen (above) and Chuck Dolan of Cablevision are trying to settle their Voom dispute out of court.

Dish Network’s Charlie Ergen (above) and Chuck Dolan of Cablevision are trying to settle their Voom dispute out of court. (Daniel Shapiro)

Dish Network and Cablevision appear to be in talks to settle their long-running legal spat over the cable operator’s defunct Voom TV service.

The court calendar entry yesterday was entitled, “Poss. Settlement,” suggesting the two warring parties could be close to a deal.

Both companies are due back at Manhattan state court on Monday.

After an nypost.com report and other stories surfaced, the entry was changed “adj. for briefing.”

Cablevision has sued Dish for $2.4 billion for dropping its Voom HD channel lineup from its satellite-TV service before their 15-year contract was up.

That claim could rise if Dish doesn’t have any good answers for Cablevision lawyers who, after an audit of Dish’s books last weekend, found that Dish had 3 million more HD customers than previously disclosed.

Dish could pay anywhere between $200 million and $1 billion to settle the case, according to a report from Barclays analyst Anthony DiClemente, though any settlement would likely include a renewed carriage deal for AMC Networks, which is absent from Dish’s service.

Should any award be made, it would flow to the Voom legal entity, which is still 20 percent-owned by Dish.

The remaining 80 percent of any award would then be split 50-50 between AMC Networks and Cablevision, which housed the entity before a public spin-off.

One large hedge fund, Paulson & Co., which has a major position in AMC, has had a representative present throughout the trial.

Dish has suffered a number of setbacks in the case and has been blasted by the judge for using delaying tactics, as well as failing to produce documents and evidence in the case.

Dish boss Charlie Ergen is scheduled to testify at the trial before Judge Richard Lowe as soon as next week.

Reps for Cablevision and Dish declined to comment.