Cablevision can’t include videotaped depositions of CEO James Dolan and an...

though the two companies and the Enforcement Bureau, which had opposed the request (CD March 12 p14), worked out an arrangement. “This Motion has wider implications than simply determining the medium through which the content of a deposition will be presented,” given Cablevision said the videotapes eliminate the need for Dolan and ex-GSN Senior Vice President-Distribution Dennis Gillespie to testify, wrote Chief FCC ALJ Richard Sippel. “Cablevision has failed to demonstrate the existence of any circumstances that cause” either man to be unable to testify, “let alone circumstances that rise to the level” of FCC rules letting depositions be used at a hearing when the witness is dead, outside the U.S., in prison or subject to several other exemptions, he wrote: “While it may save time and resources at hearing to have fewer witnesses testify, this efficiency is outweighed by the need for a complete and accurate transcript diligently established through traditional live testimony.” Dolan and Gillespie “appear to be important witnesses,” the ALJ continued in the March 15 order posted Tuesday in docket 12-122 (http://bit.ly/15YCaqk). The hearing on GSN’s complaint alleging Cablevision favored its own networks over the independent channel, which the operator has denied, had been scheduled to start April 2.