The Word Network, an African-American religious channel, announced Sept. 26 it filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Maryland against Sirius Satellite Radio alleging racial discrimination and breach of contract.

According to The Word Network, Sirius dropped its programming, a mix of religious programming and gospel music, earlier this month, citing poor ratings. The broadcaster is seeking unspecified damages.

“We were dropped without warning and when we pressed as to why, Sirius said ratings were poor,” Word Network Vice President of Operations Lewis Gibbs said in a statement. “However, Sirius refused to say what the ratings were or if others with supposedly similar ratings were also unceremoniously dropped. We feel that was a pretext for racial and religious discrimination, and neither we nor our supporters will stand for it.”

Jim Collins, Sirius spokesman, said Sirius has not received any information pertaining to this suit and declined to comment.