Supreme Court Lets DirecTV Antitrust Case Against Nexstar Move Forward

The court’s decision leaves intact an appellate ruling that revived DirecTV’s claims against Nexstar and other television-station owners. DirecTV has accused the companies of coordinating behind the scenes to seek artificially elevated fees for permission to carry local broadcast stations, Quiver reported.

The dispute centers on retransmission fees, which television distributors pay broadcasters for the right to include local stations in their channel lineups. DirecTV alleges that Nexstar and two other station owners worked together in setting their demands rather than negotiating independently, according to Quiver.

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DirecTV did not agree to pay the contested prices. The resulting carriage dispute caused some stations to become unavailable to roughly 1 million subscribers and contributed to thousands of customer cancellations, according to DirecTV’s allegations as reported by Quiver.

A federal judge had initially thrown out the lawsuit. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later revived part of the case, ruling in December that DirecTV could pursue claims tied to profits it says it lost as a result of the alleged conduct, Quiver reported.

Read more: Federal Judge Allows DirecTV Antitrust Case Against Nexstar to Proceed

Nexstar challenged that conclusion, arguing that DirecTV lacked legal standing because the satellite-TV provider did not actually pay the allegedly inflated retransmission prices. The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear Nexstar’s appeal means the lower-court decision remains in effect and the antitrust litigation can continue, according to Quiver.

The case puts additional attention on the economics of local television distribution at a time when broadcasters and pay-TV providers continue to clash over carriage costs. Nexstar and its subsidiaries and partners own or operate 265 television stations in 132 U.S. markets, according to Quiver.

The Supreme Court’s action does not resolve DirecTV’s underlying antitrust allegations. Instead, it allows the company to continue pursuing its claims in the lower courts after Nexstar’s attempt to block the case at the nation’s highest court was unsuccessful.

Source: Quiver