Tennis Channel Files Petition For Full Court Review

Written by: Staff on 16th July 2013

Tennis Channel Files Petition For Full Court Review |

Tennis Channel has no plans to let its long time legal dispute with cable giant Comcast come to an end. The network filed a petition for full court review by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit of a three-judge panel decision in May that Comcast did not violate the FCC’s program carriage rules.

In that ruling, the court said Tennis Channel had not proved that Comcast had discriminated against it by not offering the network to all its subscribers as it does for other sports networks it owns, such as NBC Sports Network and the Golf Channel.

The ruling was a major blow to Tennis Channel, as it reversed a decision by the FCC that Comcast was by favoring its own networks over Tennis Channel and therefore harming it financially. The decision costs Tennis Channel millions in potential new subscriber revenue.

In its new petition, Tennis Channel stated that the ruling “departed from well-settled anti-discrimination law…ignored congressional intent and erroneously rejected extensive findings made by the FCC. Comcast’s programming business benefits from weakening the independent Tennis Channel’s ability to compete for programming and advertisers. This is exactly what Congress sought to prohibit when it adopted the Cable Act.”

Tennis Channel also argued that even though Comcast said its refusal to move it to a less expensive and more broadly distributed tier were for economic reasons, the FCC found that Comcast in fact made no effort to analyze the benefits its distribution business could obtain from Tennis Channel’s proposal for broader carriage.

Comcast has consistently contended they made a valid deal with Tennis Channel and that it received “exactly the carriage it bargained for and agreed to.”

Tennis Channel apparently wants the full court to rule on whether proof of economic loss due to discrimination is actually required.

Comcast countered: “A unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals emphatically rejected Tennis Channel’s complaint in a well-considered opinion. We continue to treat Tennis Channel fairly, making it available to those customers who want it in full accordance with our contract.”

The case could drag on for another couple of years.

Cable industry watchers are paying close attention to it, as no carriage disputes of this type have advanced so far in litigation.

©Daily Tennis News Wire

Topics: Comcast tennis news, Sports, Tennis Channel, tennis lawsuits, Tennis News

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10sBalls_com says:

July 16, 2013 at 9:45 am

Tennis Channel Files Petition For Full Court Review – http://t.co/AzXyKWuUSc @TennisChannel #tennis @BleacherReport