ESPN and Verizon have told a New York judge that they have "made 'progress in their ongoing settlement negotiations' and wish to pause a legal dispute," meaning the net's lawsuit filed last April over skinny bundles -- including a basic package without sports -- "might never get past the negotiating table again," according to Eriq Gardner of the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. ESPN, whose programming is the "most valuable on cable television -- and is soon due to reap more than $8 per subscriber from cable and satellite companies," -- would likely "have been asking the judge to interpret contracts that deal not only with the main network, but also its wider universe of channels ... and how they may be distributed." This is a subject that ESPN "has gone to trial over already, though not in the context where customers got the option of having the expensive sports networks become merely optional." Although there is "no word of what a settlement might involve, Verizon has already made big changes to its Custom TV package." Upon the announcement, ESPN said it was "encouraged by the changes" (HOLLYWOODREPORTER.com, 2/23). The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Joe Flint notes a preliminary conference on the case "was scheduled to be held Friday in New York Supreme Court." But court documents show that a stay "was granted, and the conference has been adjourned until at least March 28" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2/24).
