Indianapolis Station is Suing AT&T for Racial Discrimination

It is almost common to see a TV station get sued for racial discrimination, but it isn’t often that you see a TV station that is suing for racial discrimination.

The owner of WISH-TV (Indianapolis) Circle City Broadcasting, has filed suit against AT&T.

Back in September of last year, Circle City bought the station from Nexstar and they say that when Nexstar owned the station AT&T paid Nexstar for the right to retransmit the stations’ signals, and passed on those charges to its customers in the Indianapolis area.

“The very day Circle City purchased WISH-TV and WNDY-TV, AT&T halted all retransmission payments for those stations, after paying full market price to the prior owner of the stations for years,” the lawsuit alleges.

AT&T has since “offered zero compared to the rates it paid the prior broadcaster, Nexstar,” according to the lawsuit.

Agreeing to offer the channels to AT&T at no fee for re-transmission would then lead to lower offers from other cable and satellite operators in the future, the lawsuit states.

“At that point, there will be a race to the bottom that ultimately puts Circle City out of business, and kills one of the best examples of Blacks’ and other minorities’ ability to succeed and lead in American media,” the lawsuit alleges.

Back in June, Capitol City owner DuJaun McCoy sent this email to AT&T management asking for an explanation? It seems he did not get one that is satisfactory and now he’s suing.

H/T WISH