Nexstar Seeks Dismissal of DirecTV Antitrust Lawsuit for Lack of Standing

DirecTV’s “hollow” antitrust lawsuit against Nexstar and sidecar companies Mission Broadcasting and White Knight Broadcasting should be dismissed for lack of standing, said the broadcasters Monday in a heavily redacted motion to dismiss filed in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York (docket 1:23-cv-02221). DirecTV never paid "the purportedly inflated retransmission consent fees,” said the filing. Because the parties never reached agreement on retransmission consent renewals, “it is impossible to know that they actually would have done so, much less what the rate and non-rate terms would have been, whether that rate would have exceeded market benchmarks,” the broadcasters said. DirecTV filed the lawsuit as a retransmission consent negotiating tactic, and also lacks standing because it can’t show that the court can do anything to redress the matter, the broadcasters said. A judgment in the case would only enjoin Nexstar’s relationship with Mission and White Knight, not compel DirecTV to carry them, said the motion. DirecTV therefore hasn't pleaded, and can't plead, "facts demonstrating that success in this lawsuit will redress the harm it alleges,” said the filing. Even if there were collusion between Mission and White Knight, it would be irrelevant because the companies don’t own top-four stations in the same market, the broadcasters said. “A common, industrywide, and FCC-regulated business practice cannot, in and of itself, support an inference of unlawful conspiracy,” the filing said.