Judge Blocks DirecTV Plan to Offer Network Programs

MIAMI — A federal judge in Miami blocked DirecTV Inc. from offering customers broadcast network programming, after the four major U.S. networks sought a temporary injunction against the No. 1 satellite television company.

DirecTV, a unit of Hughes Electronics Corp., said Thursday that it would immediately start disconnecting CBS Corp. and Fox Entertainment Group Inc. programming from its satellite feeds to comply with the court order.

But it encouraged all affected subscribers to contact their local CBS and Fox affiliates and request waivers to continue receiving their network programming by satellite.

Judge Lenore Nesbitt’s ruling is in line with a permanent injunction she issued last year preventing PrimeTime 24, the largest wholesaler of network programming to satellite companies, from broadcasting network programs.

DirecTV said earlier this week that it would provide the service to its customers, who face the loss of PrimeTime 24’s service on Sunday. The networks estimate that as many as 400,000 customers will be affected by the decision.

DirecTV “tried a little trick--to fire PrimeTime 24, the company that has been supplying them with the signals,” said Tom Olson, an attorney who represented the four networks. “They thought that would get them out of having to comply with the judge’s order. The judge said, ‘I’m not buying that.’ ”

CBS and Fox Entertainment are the two networks that sued PrimeTime 24.

The four major networks are trying to get the injunction expanded to cover Walt Disney Co.’s ABC and General Electric Co.’s NBC as well, Olson said.

DirecTV had contended it could offer signals from network stations in New York and Los Angeles because Nesbitt’s permanent injunction applied only to PrimeTime 24.

By law, satellite TV customers can receive signals of distant network affiliates only if they can’t get local affiliates’ signals using conventional antennas.