WASHINGTON - Colorado's two senators have asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to look into an escalating dispute involving the nation's two dominant satellite television companies.
Sens. Wayne Allard, a Republican, and Ken Salazar, a Democrat, asked the committee in a letter last Friday to examine whether The DirecTV Group Inc., controlled by global media giant News Corp., "has engaged in behavior that would threaten the viablity of the satellite TV market."
Colorado is home to EchoStar Communications Corp. and its competing satellite television provider DISH Network.
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Last week, EchoStar and affiliates of ABC, NBC and CBS, as well as affiliates of the Fox Network, agreed to a $100 million settlement that would allow the company to continue transmitting their signals.
Stations that air the Fox network but are not owned by Fox agreed to the settlement. But the 25 stations that are owned by Fox - a subsidiary of News Corp. - did not go along. News Corp. also owns a controlling interest in DirecTV.
Instead, Fox filed a request for an injunction that would prevent EchoStar from transmitting the signals from any of the four networks.
At the same time, DirecTV began running ads in some affected markets in an attempt to pick up EchoStar customers.
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