MASN v. TWC Getting Renewed FCC Attention
Career FCC staffers are giving renewed attention to a long-dormant program-carriage case that the Media Bureau decided in the channel’s favor and proposed that the full commission uphold, agency officials said. Bureau officials appear to be revisiting an order on Mid-Atlantic Sports Network v. Time Warner Cable that went on circulation the last business day Kevin Martin was FCC chairman, an agency official said. Representatives of MASN and Time Warner Cable likely will come to the commission to meet with staffers and perhaps FCC members in the coming weeks to discuss the case, agency officials said.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
The commissioners could vote on the order once it’s recirculated and after the status meeting, an agency official said. It’s unclear what changes are being made to the order, which backed the bureau in upholding an arbitrator’s decision to require Time Warner Cable to distribute the channel -- which features games from baseball’s Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals -- in North Carolina. Representatives of the bureau and Time Warner Cable had no comment. “If the FCC asks us to come in for a status conference, we would follow their direction and be happy to oblige,” said a MASN spokesman.
MASN has asked the FCC to approve what’s called a shot clock, which would limit how long the commission could take to deal with orders on program carriage. The commission hasn’t been active on program carriage issues while it has been dealing with program access cases and an order making changes to the complaint process when a pay-TV provider alleges that it can’t get rights to distribute a network -- often a regional sports operation like MASN -- affiliated with a cable operator. MASN settled a program-carriage case against Comcast when the cable operator agreed to expand distribution of the network to parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania after an FCC administrative law judge heard the dispute.
The NCTA on Friday asked the commission to disregard MASN’s requests for changes in handling program-access complaints that also included authorizing awards of monetary damages against rule violators. “While MASN styles these requests as procedural modifications, its proposals would substantively alter cable operators’ rights in a manner at odds with existing laws and regulations. Any burden shifting or procedural short-cut that would deny a cable operator review by the Commission of an order compelling speech raises serious First Amendment concerns,” the NCTA said. A spokesman for the group declined to comment on the filing. MASN’s request that any complaints that the commission hasn’t acted on when the shot clock runs out be deemed decided in favor of the complainant would penalize appellants “for actions (or inaction) completely beyond their control,” the NCTA said. “It would unlawfully deprive appellants of their statutory right to have their application for review ‘passed upon by the full Commission.'”