Recent Program Carriage Decisions Seen Giving Advantage to Cablevision in GSN Carriage Case

摘要

A focus on the competitiveness of the video market in recent court decisions could indicate FCC programncarriage rules are in trouble, and put the Game Show Network at a disadvantage in its upcoming showdownnwith Cablevision in an FCC administrative law judge hearing over channel placement, said severalncable attorneys in interviews. Because judges’ opinions in this month's Time Warner Cable case (CD Sept 5np4) and May’s Tennis Channel case (CD May 29 p1) both pointed to a cable provider’s power in the marketnas a factor in determining whether the FCC can compel it to carry or how to carry a channel, GSN will havento go farther to prove that not being carried on Cablevision’s basic tier harms its ability to compete, said severalncable attorneys. “All of these cases are good for the cable operators,” said Cohn and Marks cable attorneynRon Siegel, not connected to any of the cases. “The market is more competitive and cable isn’t as muchnof a bottleneck — if you don’t have market power, there’s no need for [program carriage] rules."