A $153 million contract dispute between Dish Network Corp. and ESPN Inc. ended with something of a whimper on Feb. 28. After nearly three weeks of trial in Southern District court pitting Barry Ostrager of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett for Dish against Diane Sullivan of Weil, Gotshal & Manges for ESPN, a 10-person jury sided with ESPN on three of the four claims in the case, awarding Dish just $4.85 million on the remaining claim in Dish Network v. ESPN, 1:09-cv-06875.
Dish filed the suit in 2009, claiming that ESPN breached a "most-favored nation" clause in the companies’ licensing contract by offering competitors better terms for networks such as ESPN Classic and Spanish language station ESPN Deportes. "ESPN provided more favorable terms to Dish’s competitors and made a calculated decision not to offer those same terms to Dish," Ostrager told jurors on Feb. 27 as Dish wrapped up its case.
