Sky Angel Files Suit Against C-SPAN

Sky Angel has filed an antitrust suit against C-SPAN, saying the public affairs net improperly withdrew its programming from the program distributor in 2009.

Sky Angel says that because C-SPAN is owned and operated by the cable industry, it "ceased to act as a legitimate collaboration among competitors" with the withdrawal of programming and instead illegally harmed competition by depriving Sky Angel of content that was highly valued and that all of Sky Angel's competitors had access to. In 2008, Sky Angel decided to switch from a satellite service to what it describes as a hybrid satellite/Internet delivery service, a move that prompted some programmers to choose not to be carried. The suit alleges that the C-SPAN board, comprising MSO execs from top cable companies "authorized C-SPAN to withhold its programming from Sky Angel, hijacked the public service mission of C-SPAN's legitimate competitor collaboration and repurposed C-SPAN as an instrument to boycott, exclude, injure and destroy Sky Angel."