• Multichannel News, Friday, November 23, 2007 12:45 PM

HDNet owner Mark Cuban is whining to federal regulators about a distributor, expanding a dispute with DirecTV from the Texas courts to the nation's capital. In filings with the Federal Communications Commission, Cuban claims his HDNet and HDNet Movies are being discriminated against by both DirecTV and Liberty Media, which is seeking to acquire News Corp.'s 38.5% stake in the satellite provider.

"The proposed transaction cannot be in the 'public interest' as required by law without the addition of conditions to protect independent programmers carried by DirecTV at the time this application was filed," HDNet says in its filing. It also charges that DirecTV is trying to "kill off" the network, and that Liberty Media was at one time seeking to acquire 50% of HD. The net wants the FCC to force DirecTV to continue carriage for four years assuming approval is granted for the Liberty Media deal.

For its part, DirecTV, in a filing with the FCC Tuesday, and in documents previously filed with the Texas court, denies the charges--and in its own FCC filing says "sensing that it might not have much commercial leverage in next year's renewal negotiations, HDNet has concocted a discrimination claim against DirecTV in hopes that the Commission will guarantee it carriage for years to come, at rates which HDNet, on the merits of its content, could not command otherwise."

Read the whole story at Multichannel News »