The Walt Disney Co. has filed a copyright lawsuit against Dish Network, according to Reuters. The studio is alleging that the satellite television operator had handed out films like Toy Story 3 and Alice in Wonderland to Dish subscribers for free on Starz without the company’s permission. (Starz also filed a complaint against Dish.) Starz is normally a paid subscriber network like HBO or Showtime, but Disney says Dish has been providing the channel gratis to all its 14 million customers through Jan. 2012. Disney claims it had only allowed Starz to air its movies “with the understanding that Starz would be on a premium tier with distributors.” The violation, the suit says, began in February; Disney had sent a cease-and-desist letter to Dish in March, and Disney alleges Dish refused to cooperate.
Dish Network released the following statement regarding the suit: “DISH Network 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.”
Give em hell DISH! It’s two films. Disney seriously, get over it.
So petty. Disney can’t let subscribers enjoy anything during these rough times? So petty.
It seems like Disney has a legitimate gripe with Starz, however the Dish network suit seems to be baseless. Starz should have thought about their contract with Disney before agreeing to terms with Dish netwok
I see why Disney has a problem, if people can get the movie for free then they don’t have to buy the DVD. It deteriorates their brand, as a shareholder they need to nip this in the butt.
They sold the rights to those movies to Starz. Starz then sold all their broadcasting to Dish network.
Nothing to “nip in the butt” here, unless they choose to go after Starz.
They are pointing their finger at the wrong person
its “nip it in the bud” and its not free, you don’t get to keep the dvd if you pay for Dish and watch it on starz. honestly, my cable provider only charges $2.95 to have Starz, and I don’t even need it cause I can watch all of their programming on Netflix.
Um, didn’t Toy Story 3 and Alice in Wonderland both gross over a billion dollars? Disney’s swimming in money right noe so they should het over it and let subscribers actually watch films that are worth the money they pay for starz
I Love Dish for that no more buying your DvDs
Alice in wonderland is complete crap and toy story isn’t as good as the hype surrounding it. Up and the incredibles are way better cartoon films.
All these cable and satellite companies are totally full of crap when it comes to their contracts and services.
You have to pay for the STARZ network as a premium channel with AT&T and Comcast so Dish shouldn’t be giving it away for free. If Disney and other movie companies do like that Dish hands it out for free, the simple solution would be to pull their movies from Starz and go to HBO or Showtime instead.
Well Sam it must really irk you when ALL of those providers you listed always offer free/discounted programming for new customers. I guess you have never seen “Free HBO for 6 months” on Comcast or “Lock in your price for a year and save $31 a month for a full year” on Directv. The only thing odd is Dish is rewarding loyalty since you don’t have to sign a 24 month commitment or signup for autopay to get this deal which is unheard of in the tv game. Besides these are all gimmicks the savings that Dish customers get is 13 off a month… big deal. My Dish bill is still $93 so I’m sure everyone is getting paid.
The funny thing about this is, after watching the Toy Story marathon on Starz on Dish Network, I was reminded how much I enjoyed them and was just about to head out this weekend to buy the blu-ray for these and other Pixar favorites. This just sours that whole idea. Disney made a big stink recently about Dish having to pay more to distribute their Disney Channel(s) in HD. All that cost gets passed on to the subscriber. Dish stood their ground and Disney now has their content shown in standard definition only. Who loses? Just the subscriber, of course.
Dish has done various customer appreciation things throughout my time with them (e.g. Cinemax for 1 cent for a year). When they announced Dish subscribers would be getting Starz free through 2012, I was naturally happy. What cable/satellite provider does this kind of thing, ever? Far as I’m concerned, Dish has earned a customer for life. Their price is right, always competitive and always less than its cable/satellite competitors. I appreciate their efforts to keep rising costs down, especially in tough times.
Thanks for interesting blog post. You guys are always provide information that it makes it impossible not to want to buy your next product ;I can¡¯t wait to see what you guys come up with based on all your research and data that you gather.