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Al Jazeera America Plays Hardball With AT&T

Aug 21, 2013  •  Post A Comment

Al Jazeera America is accusing AT&T of breach of contract, and the fledgling cable news channel is taking its beef to court. The cable channel said Tuesday it has filed a lawsuit against AT&T after AT&T dropped the network from its lineup, B&C reports.

AT&T stopped airing the channel Aug. 20, the day Al Jazeera America debuted as a 24-hour news channel.

In a statement, Al Jazeera America said: "Al Jazeera America made a decision to seek judicial intervention in its dispute with AT&T. Unfortunately AT&T’s decision to unilaterally delete Al Jazeera America presented us with circumstances that were untenable — an affiliate that has willfully and knowingly breached its contractual obligations. Accordingly, we had no choice but to take this action and to enforce Al Jazeera America’s rights under its agreement with AT&T — and to compel AT&T to do the right thing."

AT&T had said earlier that it wouldn’t carry the channel because the two sides had failed to come to a carriage agreement, the story notes.

One Comment

  1. AT&T may be forgetting that these folks have way more money than even they do and they are far more patient to wait since the damage is done. AT&T just wants to save face and pretend they never struck a deal. This is one of those “confidential settlements” in the making.

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