Charter Sues City Regarding Northwest Blackout
Charter Communications is suing El Centro, California, for allegedly meddling in the cable company's carriage dispute with Northwest Broadcasting. In a docket 18-679 complaint (in Pacer) filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in San Diego, Charter said El Centro's "unwarranted"…
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FCC complaint about the blackout of Northwest stations (see 1803210031), coupled with the citations under municipal code, are aimed at forcing it to concede in its talks with Northwest. Those actions have "harden[ed] Northwest's negotiating position and [made] a deal on reasonable terms even more difficult," Charter said. It asks for a declaration that the city code provisions on which the citations are based are pre-empted by the state's Digital Infrastructure & Video Competition Act and that the city is violating the DIVCA by trying to force the cable company to carry Northwest programming. The MVPD seeks injunction banning El Centro from further "preempted and unlawful conduct." El Centro City Attorney Elizabeth Martyn in an emailed statement Friday said the complaint is "ill-founded, lacks significant legal merit and is retaliatory to the City's efforts to obtain the cable services it (as a subscriber) and, more importantly, its residents pay for." Last week, it said it's soliciting comments from residents about the blackout to be forwarded to the FCC on April 16. According to the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (Pacer) database, Charter hasn't so far filed any similar suits against other communities that have complained to the FCC about the cable company violating the 30-day notice rule in the Northwest blackout (see 1804050049). Charter didn't comment.