Fox News Seeks to 'Streamline' Suit Against Charter
Fox News Network is dropping some of its complaints in its affiliation lawsuit against Charter Communications, FNN said in a letter posted Thursday in New York Supreme Court. FNN said the move to discontinue the six claims subject to a…
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Charter motion to dismiss is aimed at "streamlin[ing] this proceeding and in contemplation of promptly filing a motion for summary judgment on the core contract issue in dispute -- the question of which agreement governs Defendants' distribution of FNN programming following Charter's acquisition" of Time Warner Cable. While dropping the declaratory judgment, breach of obligation of good faith and fair dealing, unjust enrichment, indemnity, estoppel and fraud claims, the programmer said "the language is plain and unambiguous" on the remaining breach of contract claim. FNN also said Charter indicated it plans to bring a counterclaim arguing the programmer breached its agreement with the MVPD "by failing, in some unspecified way, to comply with its obligations under a most favored nation provision ... of the contract." FNN said the court should settle the issue of which contract -- Charter or TWC -- governs before any counterclaim proceedings in order to avoid wasting time and resources. Charter didn't comment Friday.