A NY-based federal judge has denied Aereo’s second attempt at winning permission to depose CBS Corp. CEO Les Moonves. The Barry Diller-backed broadcast TV streaming company wanted to depose Moonves in front of its lawyers because he “has made public statements regarding the claims in this case, including comments that contradict sworn CBS testimony,” according to its filing earlier this year. Reaffirming Magistrate Judge Henry Pitman’s ruling of 6/4, District Judge Alison Nathan said 10/17: “Nothing in the record suggests that the rulings were clearly erroneous or contrary to law, or that the substantial deference due to the resolution of discovery disputes by a magistrate judge should not be accorded in the instant matter,” she said in her order reported by Deadline.com.
Moonves has been very open about his views on the service since it first launched in early 2012. Calling Aereo “illegal,” he said in April “we will go after them in the courts and if that doesn’t work there are other remedies. There are financial remedies; there are congressional remedies.”
In May, Moonves said that CBS and other broadcaster would follow Aereo and “we’ll sue them again” in new jurisdictions.
In April, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals said Nathan was right last year to refuse broadcasters an injunction against the controversial service that streams broadcasters’ over-the-air signals to its subscribers. As Aereo has expanded across the country, broadcasters have gone after it in courts out West, in Boston and most recently in Utah.
