New Jersey Court Issues Injunctive Relief to EchoStar Subsidiary NRT America; Court Orders TV Russian Network, TVR, to Stop Use of ORT and TV-6 Russian-Language Programming.Business Editors LITTLETON, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 17, 2001 EchoStar Communications Corporation EchoStar Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH) is the parent company of DISH Network and the maintainer of the satellite fleet that provides the signal that DISH Network markets. (Nasdaq:DISH) announced today that the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey The United States District Court for the District of New Jersey is the Federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of New Jersey. It was established in 1789. New Jersey is the largest state by population to only have one District Court. The Honorable Garrett E. has recently entered a preliminary injunction A temporary order made by a court at the request of one party that prevents the other party from pursuing a particular course of conduct until the conclusion of a trial on the merits. A preliminary injunction is regarded as extraordinary relief. ordering TV Russian Network, Inc. (TVR TVR Target Vessel Revascularization (cardiology) TVR Televisiun Rumantscha (Switzerland TV) TVR Trevor Wilkinson (British automobile company) ), a New Jersey corporation, to stop the transmission in North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. of the Russian State Television Broadcasting Service, known as ORT, and the Moscow Independent Broadcasting Channel TV-6. New Russian Television America, Inc. (NRT NRT Nicotine Replacement Therapy NRT Norm-Referenced Test NRT near real time NRT Non-Real-Time NRT National Response Team NRT Tokyo, Japan - Narita (Airport Code) NRT Net Registered Tonnage ), a subsidiary of Kelly Broadcasting Systems, Inc., which merged with EchoStar in March 2000, filed suit against TVR after learning that GlobeCast America, NA. had added TVR to its satellite TV programming platform in the United States. TVR is a 24-hour Russian-language television channel that was delivering live, delayed and archived television programs from ORT, the leading TV network in Russia. TV-6 is Russia's premier entertainment channel. Kelly Broadcasting and its NRT subsidiary argued that it had acquired the exclusive broadcast rights to ORT and TV-6 programming in September of 1999 and that the broadcast of the service by TVR in North America violated the rights of NRT. TVR claimed to have received the broadcast rights from its corporate parent, Cederland International, Ltd., an off-shore company controlled by Russian oil and media tycoon Boris Berezovsky and originally backed by News Corporation. The court order of April 17, 2001, directed TVR to discontinue any broadcasting activities associated with the programming. The order was issued by U.S. District Judge John Bissell of the District of New Jersey. "We are very pleased with the court's ruling," said Michael Kelly, senior vice president of EchoStar. "We look forward to putting this matter behind us and expanding our presence in Russian-language programming while offering more enhanced programming services to the Russian communities in the U.S., where EchoStar's DISH Network currently distributes two other full-time Russian-language services, NTV NTV Nippon Television Network Corporation (Japan) nTV National Television NTV Nepal Television NTV Newfoundland Television NTV Non-Tactical Vehicle NTV Nerve Tissue Vaccine NTV Notice to Vacate and NTV Plus." DISH Network is a trademark of EchoStar Communications Corporation (Nasdaq:DISH). DISH Network is EchoStar's state-of-the-art direct broadcast satellite TV system that is capable of offering over 500 channels of digital video and CD-quality audio programming, as well as advanced satellite TV receiver hardware and installation. DISH Network was ranked number one in overall customer satisfaction among cable/satellite TV subscribers by J.D. Power and Associates in 1999 and 2000. EchoStar is included in the Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX NDX Index NDX Index (File Name Extension) NDX Northern Document Exchange NDX Index File ). DISH Network currently serves over 6 million customers. For more information, visit www.dishnetwork.com. |
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