According
to DISH Network, a Nevada court has set a July 22 date for a hearing on DISH's
argument for a temporary injunction against FCC enforcement of the HD carriage
mandate in the satellite reauthorization bill.
DISH
filed for an injunction last week in Nevada, where it is incorporated, because
it is facing a July 27 deadline for coming to carriage terms with 30 noncom
stations or triggering a speeded-up (by the end of next year) timetable for
carriage of all noncommercial signals in any market where it carries any
stations in HD.
DISH's
bone to pick is not with the FCC, which is required to enforce the law, but
with the legislation that it argues puts a thumb on the scale in favor of a
particular type of programming.
DISH
says the mandate violates its First and Fifth Amendment rights and has already
put a crimp in business plans it based on the 2008 FCC timetable for phasing in
HD carriage of all local TV stations, including noncoms, by 2013.
