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Court Upholds FCC Ban on Some Cable Deals

  • Reuters, Monday, March 15, 2010 12:39 AM
In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. appeals court upheld on Friday a Federal Communications Commission ban for five more years, preventing cable companies like Comcast Corp from cutting exclusive deals for affiliated television programming. Fears for market competition and diversity kept the ban in place. The ban was meant to ensure that satellite television providers like DirecTV and Dish, as well as smaller cable operators and new entrants into the subscription television business could get content from cable programmers.

Comcast and Cablevision Systems Corp had challenged the FCC decision, arguing that it was arbitrary and capricious and violated free speech rights and that the agency had misinterpreted the underlying law. The court did note that the market for subscription television was evolving quickly and the FCC could eventually conclude that the exclusivity prohibition was no longer necessary.

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