Maryland District Court Rules in Favor of Compass Lexecon Client Discovery Communications

Jonathan Orszag was retained by Discovery Communications, Inc. and their outside counsel, Theodore E. Tsekerides and David L. Yohai from Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, to file an expert report and testify regarding a contract dispute between Discovery Communications, Inc. and Sky Angel, a content distribution company. In 2010, Discovery terminated its agreement with Sky Angel after Discovery determined that Sky Angel’s mode of distribution of Discovery’s programming channels violated their contractual agreement. Sky Angel claimed that the contract termination was unjustified and that the loss of the Discovery programming significantly harmed its ability to attract and retain subscribers. Mr. Orszag, a Senior Managing Director at Compass Lexecon, testified at trial regarding the differences in a programmers’ economic considerations when entering into a contract with different distribution technologies and the proper approach to assessing the profitability of carrying a channel by a video distributor. He also showed that the evidence put forward by Sky Angel’s economic expert did not establish that the loss of the Discovery programming harmed significantly Sky Angel’s business. Judge Deborah K. Chasanow, the Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, ruled in favor of Compass Lexecon’s client, Discovery Communications, on all counts. Mr. Orszag was supported by Yair Eilat and Nathan Hyatt from Compass Lexecon’s Oakland office.