The latest
The Los Angeles Times has outlined some of York’s tactics, describing him as one of the most powerful TV execs and saying he can make or break networks by deciding which ones will be carried by AT&T’s DirecTV and U-Verse systems in essence deciding how much the company will pay to keep them on.
At one time, DirecTV marketed itself as an alternative to cable by its willingness to carry certain networks that weren’t on other providers. But in recent years, DirecTV has been getting in more disputes. The Times’ Meg James describes one particular dispute with Weather Channel in which York demanded the network slash its subscriber feees saying he wanted them to cut them by a whopping 75%:
After the Weather Channel refused, DirecTV abruptly replaced it with a lesser-known programming service — confusing viewers who suddenly couldn’t find their favorite meteorologist on TV.
In its lawsuit against DirecTV, the Department of Justice alleges York was the mastermind in preventing SportsNet LA from being picked up by the major providers in Southern California:
York, who works at DirecTV’s headquarters in El Segundo, allegedly traded calls, text messages and inside information with his counterparts at Charter Communications, Cox Communications and AT&T (before the phone company swallowed DirecTV) to thwart rival Time Warner Cable, which had the rights to distribute SportsNet LA. Time Warner Cable struck out in its efforts to win carriage for the pricey channel.
York is said to not just drive hard bargains, but is willing to get into people’s faces, yell and do anything at all costs to help keep DirecTV’s costs down.
Refusing to carry the Dodgers channel, in effect, saved DirecTV more than $200 million in programming costs the satellite TV provider would have had to pay Time Warner Cable over the three years that SportsNet LA has been in operation. That expense, insiders said, would have been passed along to customers.
But if York is found to have colluded to keep SportsNet LA off, the short-term profits for AT&T may results in heavy fines for the company and also put a black mark on its bid to purchase Time Warner.
Over the years, York has been known as a tough negotiator. His tactics for AT&T U-Verse service were well known within the industry and when AT&T took over DirecTV, he found that his fiefdom for the small provider became a kingdom with the satellite provider and its large subscriber base.
So as the Department of Justice now going after York and DirecTV, we’ll see if AT&T decides to go ahead and fight the lawsuit or if will eventually settle the case by picking up SportsNet LA. It’s going to be very interesting to follow this story to see how AT&T decides to handle this.
