Bloomberg Files Friendly Brief For Tennis Channel

Written by: Staff on 22nd February 2013

Bloomberg Files Friendly Brief For Tennis Channel |

Bloomberg has asked a federal appeals court to let stand an FCC decision finding that Comcast had discriminated against Tennis Channel by placing the outlet on a lower sports tier. The Bloomberg TV channel itself has also been battling Comcast as to where it is placed. The Sports Business Journal reported that Bloomberg, which primarily produces business news, filed a friend of the court brief.

“Bloomberg is keenly aware of the incentives that cable MVPDs [multichannel video programming distributors like Comcast] have to harm and discriminate against independent programmers in favor of affiliated programming and the absolutely essential need for a fair and effective process for hearing and deciding program carriage complaints,” the company said in its filing.

The FCC ruled in Tennis Channel’s favor last year and ordered Comcast to place Tennis Channel on the same tiers as two channels its owns – NBC Sports Network and Golf Channel, or drop those two channels back to the same pay tier that Tennis Channel is on.

Then Comcast announced that it would move Tennis Channel from a more pricey sports tier to a basic digital tier on September 7, which is during the second week of the 2012 US Open.

But in a move that stunned Tennis Channel, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. put on hold the FCC’s decision, and ruled it would stay the enforcement until it had heard Comcast’s challenge to the FCC’s decision.

The DC Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear oral arguments Feb. 25. Tennis Channel had said that once Comcast moved it that it would be available in about 18 million more homes.

©Daily Tennis News Wire

Topics: Bloomberg tennis news, Comvast tennis news, Sports, Tennis Channel, Tennis News