Fuse Brings Carriage Complaint Against AT&T
AT&T's "travesty" of a carriage renewal offer to Fuse Media was "untenable and likely unserious," a far cry from what it pays similarly situated affiliated networks such as TBS, TNT, Adult Swim, CNN and TruTV, Fuse said in an FCC…
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docket 12-1 carriage complaint Monday. Fuse, in the midst of carriage talks with the MVPD for its Fuse and FM networks, said the AT&T-affiliated networks are paid higher rates on an absolute and ratings-adjusted basis. It said AT&T's Dec. 1 counteroffer, after months of relative silence to Fuse's initial rates offer, "is precisely the behavior the program carriage rules are intended to curb." It said AT&T took a harsher approach with Fuse after its 2018 buy of Time Warner and the affiliated networks. Fuse said being dropped in 2018 by Comcast resulted in the programmer's 2018 bankruptcy, and the end of carriage on AT&T's DirecTV, U-verse, AT&T TV and AT&T TV Now "does indeed threaten Fuse Media’s very existence." AT&T emailed it "treat[s] all programmers fairly, including Fuse. They want the FCC to order us to carry programming our customers don’t want or value. We look forward to responding.”