Cablers Sue Maine Over a la Carte Channel Law
A Maine law mandating cable operators provide a la carte options, being challenged in federal court, is unique to that state, a cable lawyer told us Tuesday. L.D. 832, which became law in June, violates federal law and the First…
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Amendment and would result in higher costs and fewer programming choices, said cable operator Comcast and a variety of programmers in a complaint last week (in Pacer, docket 19-cv-00410) in U.S. District Court in Bangor. The suit asks for the defendants including Gov. Janet Mills (D) to be permanently enjoined from enforcing or giving effect to the law. The cablers said the law would require extensive and expensive modifications to distributors' network infrastructure; ordering, subscription management and billing systems; and consumer equipment, and give rise to costly contractual disputes between programmers and distributors. Plaintiffs also include A&E, C-SPAN, CBS, Discovery, Disney, Fox, New England Sports Network and Viacom. Defendants also are state Attorney General Aaron Frey (D) and Bath, Berwick, Bowdoin, Bowdoinham, Brunswick, Durham, Freeport, Woolwich and other communities Comcast serves. The governor's office didn't comment.