Sling TV Beats Disney in Court Over One-Day Cable Passes
▼ Summary
– A federal judge denied Disney’s request to block Sling TV’s short-term passes, ruling Disney didn’t prove they caused irreparable harm.
– Disney sued Sling TV for offering temporary access passes starting at $4.99 for one day, arguing it violated their agreement requiring monthly subscriptions.
– The judge stated Disney’s claim is unlikely to succeed because the contract doesn’t specify a minimum subscription length and broadly defines subscribers to include pass users.
– Disney failed to demonstrate that the passes would harm its reputation or divert customers from its ESPN Unlimited service, as networks are distributed the same way to more customers.
– Sling TV is celebrating the court win with a discounted $1 one-day pass, while Disney’s breach-of-contract lawsuit against the streaming service continues.
A federal court in New York has sided with Sling TV in its legal dispute with Disney over the streaming provider’s short-term access passes. The ruling allows Sling to continue offering one-day streaming passes for live television, a move Disney had sought to block, claiming it violated their distribution agreement. U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian determined that Disney did not provide sufficient evidence that these temporary passes would cause the company irreparable damage.
The legal conflict began after Sling TV introduced passes that let viewers buy temporary access to its channel lineup, starting at just $4.99 for a single day. Several Disney-owned channels are part of this offering, including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, and the Disney Channel. Disney filed suit, arguing that its contract with Sling requires content to be delivered only through monthly subscriptions, not short-term passes.
However, Judge Subramanian found Disney’s argument unlikely to hold up in court. He noted that the existing agreement does not specify any minimum subscription period. The contract’s definition of a subscriber is broad enough, he wrote, to clearly include customers who purchase the temporary passes. The judge also pointed out that Disney failed to demonstrate how Sling’s passes would harm its reputation or draw customers away from its own new service, ESPN Unlimited.
“Disney hasn’t shown it has lost customers due to the Passes,” the judge stated in his decision. He observed that the networks are being distributed on the same platform and in the same way as before, just to a wider group of Sling customers.
To mark its courtroom victory, Sling TV is promoting its one-day pass at a special discounted rate of $1. Meanwhile, Disney’s breach-of-contract lawsuit against the streaming service will proceed.
Seth Van Sickel, Sling TV’s senior vice president, celebrated the decision in a press release. “For too long, traditional ‘big media’ companies have intentionally stifled innovation and forced customers to pay for more content than they want or need,” he remarked. “We believe customers deserve the flexibility to stream the content they want, whenever they want it, at a price they can afford. Consumers deserve affordable TV, not bound by long-term contracts or bloated offerings.”
(Source: The Verge)
