The pitched battle between Lifetime Television and EchoStar Commmincations attained another unseemly public milestone yesterday when a clutch of prominent women's organizations took out newspaper
display ads criticizing the satellite company for the way in which it dumped Lifetime--the women's channel--a couple of weeks ago. Among those who endorsed the anti-EchoStar statement was Gloria
Steinem, the writer-feminist. She and others believe EchoStar chairman Charles Ergun acted improperly when he decided to deny EchoStar's subscribers the full range of Lifetime programming, for which
he cited a demand by Lifetime for a large licence-fee increase. Lifetime says that claim is inaccurate. In any event, millions who knew nothing about the contretemps suddenly found themselves reading
about it yesterday in those splashy newspaper ads. Shrewdly taking advantage of the fracas was Time Warner Cable, which placed large ads of its own, suggesting that EchoStar subs switch to Time Warner
in order to continue watching Lifetime's shows.
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