Cable

摘要

Comcast's appeal of a FCC carriage order on its distribution of the Tennis Channel is effectively annattempt to eviscerate statutory discrimination protections for independent TV networks, Bloomberg said in anwould-be amicus brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Comcast appealed an FCCnorder requiring it to distribute Tennis Channel to as many subscribers as it distributed some of its own networks,nand the D.C. Circuit blocked the order's effectiveness while it hears the appeal (CD Sept 4 p2).nComcast's interpretation of section 616 of the Cable Act would give the FCC's program carriage rulesn"limited application and certainly not enough to warrant the significant time and expense required to bringnforward a program carriage complaint," Bloomberg said. By arguing such relief must be restricted to pay-nTV operators that have bottleneck monopoly power, Comcast reveals a "fundamental misunderstanding ofnthe scope and purpose of Section 616," Bloomberg said. It's not an antitrust law, Bloomberg said. "Rather,nthe law is intended to promote diversity in programming and protect against competitive harms inflicted bynvertically-integrated cable operators seeking to bestow advantages on affiliated programmers." Moreover,nchanges in the industry don't justify "dismantling" section 616, Bloomberg said. If Comcast believes otherwise, it should argue that before Congress, not the courts or FCC, it said. "Unlike other provisions of thenCable Act, Section 616 has no sunset provision," Bloomberg said. "This court should decline Comcast's invitationnto manufacture one." The court has yet to rule on whether it will accept Bloomberg's brief.