By Mike Scarcella
WASHINGTON, Oct 5 (Reuters) - The US Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear a bid by Nexstar Media Group, which owns numerous local television stations, to block an antitrust suit by DirecTV challenging allegedly inflated content-distribution fees.
The justices turned away Nexstar's appeal of a lower court's decision to reinstate streaming and satellite TV provider DirecTV's lawsuit in federal court in New York City.
DirecTV alleged in its 2023 lawsuit that Nexstar and two station
owners violated antitrust law by depriving it of a competitive process for rights to rebroadcast certain channels in specific markets. DirecTV accused the three companies of secretly working together to demand artificially high fees, in violation of antitrust law.
DirecTV refused to pay the prices, and some stations went dark for a million DirecTV subscribers. DirecTV says thousands of customers canceled their subscriptions as a result, and the company lost revenue.
Irving, Texas-headquartered Nexstar has argued that a company can sue over price-fixing only if it actually pays allegedly inflated prices. El Segundo, California-headquartered DirecTV, according to Nexstar, has no right to sue.
According to its website, Nexstar and its subsidiaries and partners own or operate 265 stations in 132 markets in 44 US states.
A federal judge dismissed Nexstar's lawsuit. But the New York-based 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in December that DirecTV could pursue its antitrust claims based on its allegations of lost profits when it was unable to distribute those channels.
Nexstar told the Supreme Court in a filing that the 2nd Circuit's ruling conflicts with decisions by other federal appeals courts. DirecTV disputed that any conflict exists.
The 2nd Circuit order, Nexstar also said, "has exposed sellers to sweeping liability" and could threaten to subject defendants to "coercive settlement pressure divorced from any concrete market injury."
(Reporting by Mike Scarcella; Editing by Will Dunham)
