Verizon attorneys met with an aide to FCC Commissioner Robert...
Verizon attorneys met with an aide to FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell to urge the FCC to retain in full its ban on exclusive contracts between pay-TV operators and the networks they own, an ex parte notice shows (http://xrl.us/bnos8a). “We emphasized,…
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however, that at a minimum this protection should be retained with respect to must-have non-replicable programming, such as regional sports networks,” the notice said. Relying on the complaint process to address withholding of regional sports programming under Section 628(b) of the Communications Act would be “unduly burdensome,” the notice said. “As Verizon’s experience shows, the process of litigating such a complaint can allow cable incumbents to reap the rewards of their unfair withholding for months, if not years, while the litigation proceeds, thus denying consumers more meaningful competitive choices."