Florida Court Orders IPTV Company To Pay Dish $4.975 Million

A U.S. District Court in Orlando, pointing to the recommendation of a U.S. magistrate judge, Wednesday ordered (in Pacer) TV Net Solutions and co-founder/CEO Mohammad Mustafa to pay Dish Network $4.975 million. Dish sued TNS in 2012, alleging it was distributing foreign-language TV channels to which Dish had exclusive rights. In a report (in Pacer) and recommendation in April, U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Smith said TNS continues to provide equipment and service allowing access to the infringing programming despite a 2014 settlement, and recommended the court partially grant Dish's motion for default final judgment. Smith also recommended against Dish's request to be awarded attorney's fees and costs, saying there was no indication the settlement agreement provides an award of fees, and against an injunction, saying the public interest would better be served by Dish's filing a motion to reopen the 2012 case so Dish can request commencement of a contempt proceeding. Mustafa told us Thursday that TNS originally tried to buy the Arabic TV content but was unable to successfully sign a deal with the programmer, and the Dish settlement and its subsequent dropping of programming led to the it shutting down in early 2015. However, TNS' Facebook page indicates it was still active as of earlier this month.