Commissioners Want Vote on Regional Sports Network Classification
Prospects have risen for an FCC vote on a Comcast regional sports network (RSN) petition after a majority of commissioners said privately that they want to weigh in on the matter of defining the America Channel, agency officials said. They said at least three commissioners other than Chairman Kevin Martin told Martin’s office that they want to vote on whether the network counts as an RSN. Comcast wants the FCC to rule that the channel is not a regional network under the FCC’s July 2006 Adelphia order (CD May 25 p5). Comcast claims the America Channel is a national network because it has deals to carry sports games from colleges nationwide. The channel claims to be an RSN because it will have at least a half-dozen regional feeds.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
At issue is whether the Media Bureau will rule on the Comcast request without input from commissioners or if the FCC will vote. Martin alone can decide which tack to take. FCC and industry officials said the chairman has “an order on his desk” on the matter, but hasn’t decided whether to circulate it among colleagues. Sources said commissioners have talked of other options for resolving the carriage dispute, in which the channel claims Comcast has refused repeated entreaties to put the network on its systems because the America Channel is not owned by a cable operator or other large media company. One option is for the America Channel to file a program access complaint with the agency, said an FCC official. That appears unlikely, but the jury is still out on whether the bureau or the full commission will act, said industry lawyers and FCC officials.
Action by the full commission seems likelier because the FCC has not voted on what constitutes an RSN under the Adelphia order. Bureaus generally rule on petitions only after a commission vote has set a precedent. Several commissioners want the RSN matter dealt with on the eighth floor because they consider the petition on the America Channel to be a new issue, said an FCC official. Those commissioners don’t think they authorized the bureau to act when they voted on the order approving the $17.6 billion Comcast and Time Warner takeover of Adelphia, said the official.
For a network that hasn’t even begun programming, the America Channel has caused consternation among pay-TV providers fearful that giving it RSN status will disrupt the market for programming. If the FCC deems the channel an RSN, other upstarts could follow America Channel, switching formats to sports and demanding cable and satellite carriage. DirecTV and Time Warner Cable backed Comcast’s position in comments filed earlier this year. Last week, the Broadband Service Providers Association entered the fray, saying in an FCC filing that it supports the America Channel. Meeting Wednesday with an aide to Martin, officials from RCN, PrairieWave and other members of the cable overbuilder lobbying group cited the America Channel as an example of “'must have’ programming,” said an ex parte.
Martin could decide as soon as this week how to handle Comcast’s petition, probably after Tuesday’s commission meeting, said industry sources. But even if he moves quickly the FCC may not act soon, because commissioners may need time to consider the order or the bureau may need time to issue an opinion. “The leanings are toward the full commission vote, but I don’t know for sure that is going to happen,” said one lawyer. “It would be unusual but not unprecedented” if the full FCC did not act on the matter, said another attorney. “They're clearly discussing it on the eighth floor.”