ACA, Dish Say Programmers Want Something 'That Has Never Happened'
The content companies challenging FCC release of video programming contract information in filings on Comcast's planned buy of Time Warner Cable want something “that has never happened, and it cannot lawfully happen,” said Dish Network and the American Cable Association…
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in a joint intervenor brief Friday. “Under applicable law, interested parties must be provided reasonable access to decisionally significant material in the FCC’s party-based proceedings.” The brief in support of the FCC was filed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. “Failure to provide such access would be grounds to overturn any FCC decision approving either merger,” it said also of AT&T's planned buy of DirecTV. The programmers, which include CBS, Disney and Viacom, can’t show that the FCC hasn’t tried to accommodate them, Dish and ACA said: “The FCC has bent over backwards to accommodate Petitioners’ own interests, and imposed additional burdens on Intervenors in the process.” The content companies’ petition for review should be denied, Dish and ACA said.