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Dish, Disney & The $4.99 Lawsuit From Hell

Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery are suing Dish over Sling TV’s “day passes,” reviving a decades-old grudge match just as ESPN launches its long-awaited stand-alone app—and the industry braces for more existential threats.

Charlie Ergen
With the Dish uproar, Disney and WBD find themselves sparring with an old nemesis: Charlie Ergen, the Dish co-founder and longtime C.E.O., was once the industry’s favorite villain—a cranky insurgent who couldn’t resist poking the bear. Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Eriq Gardner
October 7, 2025

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It’s always revealing to see what Hollywood deems an emergency worth a mad dash to the courthouse. OpenAI’s Sora 2 video generator—the technology with the potential to reorder the entire entertainment universe—has yet to inspire so much as a summons. But there’s been plenty of cage-rattling over Dish Network’s decision to offer $4.99 “day passes” to Sling TV, giving anyone 24-hour digital access to 34 channels, including ESPN and TBS. In some ways, it’s the classic Hollywood legal drama: old foes, new tech, lawyers waving dictionaries and arguing semantics—while the industry’s real existential threats loom just offstage.