Public Knowledge said it supports a request from the major...
Public Knowledge said it supports a request from the major TV content companies to limit the disclosure of confidential distribution agreements by online video distributors (OVDs) seeking to license programming from Comcast-NBCUniversal under the terms of the FCC order approving…
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that combination. After the FCC Media Bureau recently clarified that OVDs seeking access to Comcast-owned programming under the Benchmark Condition of that merger order must provide Comcast’s outside counsel and experts with their peer agreements, the content companies -- CBS, News Corp., Sony Pictures, Time Warner, Viacom and Disney -- asked the commission to stay the bureau’s action and review it (CD Jan 7 p1). Those companies’ reluctance to share such information with a competitor could lead them to “not sign deals with OVDs in the first place” or otherwise preclude them from taking advantage of the condition, Public Knowledge said. “This undermines the purpose of the Benchmark Condition ... as well as calling into question the entire basis of the Merger Decision,” it said (http://xrl.us/bn94f7).