The U.S. District Court in Miami voided a proposed settlement that Echostar Communications Corp. had reached with several TV stations to allow the satellite-TV company to continue broadcasting local network channels, Echostar announced Oct 23.

In August, Echostar announced a deal to pay $100 million to end a nine-year litigation with ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox affiliate associations over the rebroadcasting of local TV programs. The agreement would have allowed Echostar to continue broadcasting local network channels and potentially expands its offerings.

U.S. District Judge William Dimitrouleas issued an injunction Oct. 20, as the Fox network — whose parent company News Corp. also owns DirecTV, Echostar’s chief competitor– persuaded the judge to void the pact and immediately stop Echostar’s sending signals nationwide of local sports or other network programming to an estimated 800,000 subscribers.

Noting that it had reached "settlements with seven of the eight plaintiffs, representing approximately 90 percent of all TV network stations in the United States," the company stated "Echostar will continue to do everything possible to prevent consumers from losing their distant network channels. We will ask Congress to clarify the statutory language, and ask the courts to reconsider their decision. In addition, we are taking numerous steps to protect our customers from unnecessarily losing access to those channels."

Echostar has more than 12.5 million subscribers, fewer than one million of whom subscribe to distant network channels.

"The ruling does not involve, and there is no danger, that Dish Network customers will lose their local ABC, NBC, CBS or Fox network channels, or any of the other great programming available from Echostar’s Dish Network," the company said.