FCC to Set Separate Cable, Media Ownership Rules

The Supreme Court won’t hear broadcaster arguments to appeal a lower court’s order remanding some media rules for FCC review, it said this week (CD June 14 pp1-2). Broadcasters, including CBS, Fox and NBC asked the high court to review the previous ownership order from the 3rd U.S. Appeals Circuit, Philadelphia. Some observers said they see the sense in separate review of media rules barring cross-ownership of a newspaper and TV station in one market and national cable caps that were 30%.

The D.C. Circuit Court remanded the cable caps, saying the FCC had to provide a better rationale for limits or issue new rules. The ruling in Time Warner v. FCC effectively invalidated the cable limit. Comcast’s and Time Warner’s $17.6 billion proposed purchase of most of Adelphia’s cable systems (CD (CD April 22 p2) may spur the FCC to review the caps, said Progress & Freedom Foundation’s Adam Thierer. “We now go into a new era of media ownership review at the FCC,” he said: “This Comcast-Time Warner deal really pushes the issue.”

A former FCC comr. said the dual-track approach has merit. Gloria Tristani said she supports that approach as long as both media and cable ownership issues are resolved soon. “The important thing is to get them done and to get them done right,” she said. “It needs to be resolved because there are deals like Adelphia that need to be addressed if the public interest is going to be protected.” The transaction has stirred complaints about stifling local competition from some communities, media activists and at least one rival (CD June 13 p5). The deadline for comments to FCC on the deal is July 5.

FCC Chmn. Martin wants to address cross-ownership rules first, said Blair Levin, former chief of staff to then FCC Chmn. Reed Hundt. “It’s the first one Martin is likely to bring up,” said Levin, now at Legg Mason. “It’s certainly one from an industrial perspective that has the most impact.” Other media regulations, including those governing how many TV stations one company can own in a market, may be more important in the long term, Levin predicted.

Comcast SportsNet Complaint Being Reviewed

Separately, the FCC is reviewing a complaint against a Comcast sports network, an agency official said. The complaint, made Tues., alleges Comcast SportsNet unfairly discriminated against Mid-Atlantic Sports Network by refusing to strike a carriage accord. Comcast responded that it refused because the network’s creation breached a previous contract. The 1996 contract gave the MSO first right of refusal over carriage of Baltimore Orioles games in 2006, a Comcast spokeswoman said.

Comcast has 30 days to respond to the FCC on Mid- Atlantic Sports Network’s complaint, a spokeswoman at the agency said. The FCC should force immediate carriage of MASN by Comcast, MASN said in a Tues. filing. Comcast subscribers can see only Nationals games broadcast locally on WDCA and nationally on ESPN and Fox, a CSN spokesman said. That’s about 85 games this season, he said. Comcast is the largest MSO in the Washington and Baltimore areas, with 1.35 million subscribers, said a spokesman.

Comcast says it has the right to televise Orioles games, but will do so only under what it claims are the terms of a contract. The company declined to comment on a possible resolution to the current impasse and how such an accord might be reached. “We have always said from the beginning that we would like to carry Nationals games,” said a spokesman. “But we are not going to carry MASN because the network was created as a result of a breach of contract.”