Lobbying continued around the FCC’s ban on exclusive contracts between...
Lobbying continued around the FCC’s ban on exclusive contracts between cable operators and the pay-TV networks they own ahead of the ban’s expiration date Friday. The sports programming carried on national pay-TV networks is just as “non-replicable” as that carried…
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.
by regional sports networks, American Cable Association (ACA) attorneys told FCC officials, according to a recent ex parte notice (http://xrl.us/bnscos). The commission has the authority to presume that “any network, regardless of whether it is distributed regionally or nationally” that carries a certain amount of sports programming, “is both non-replicable and highly-desired and will significantly hinder competitive MVPDs [multichannel video programming distributors] if withheld from them in the marketplace,” the notice said. The commission can use predictive judgment to reach that conclusion, it said. Separately, attorneys for Time Warner Cable told aides to commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel that categorical bans on exclusivity, even one limited to regional sports networks, should be rejected, an ex parte notice said (http://xrl.us/bnscpe).