FCC Seeks Input on Market for RSNs as It Prepares Report
The FCC wants to know about the ease of signing deals to carry regional sports networks on multichannel video programming distributors. The Media Bureau asked about a dozen questions on RSNs in a public notice. It’s part of work on a report due Jan. 13 on access and carriage issues for those channels. That’s six months before the expiration of RSN conditions imposed by the commission in 2006 on Comcast and Time Warner Cable as part of letting them buy Adelphia Communications. “After issuing the report, the Commission, in its discretion, may determine if further action is warranted,” the bureau said Tuesday. The Adelphia order barred the top two U.S. cable operators from withholding access to RSNs they deliver without using satellites, other than Comcast’s SportsNet Philadelphia.
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The bureau noted that a 2007 rulemaking notice asked about changes to how the agency resolves program carriage disputes. In the years since the Adelphia deal, it said the agency “has specifically addressed program carriage complaints regarding the Applicants and unaffiliated RSNs.” An NCTA spokesman declined to comment on the notice (http://xrl.us/bk29q6). Comments are due in docket 11-128 Sept. 9, replies Sept. 26.
A program carriage order and further rulemaking notice, meanwhile, circulated this May by the bureau, have been approved by all FCC members but Robert McDowell (CD July 26 p7). He still hadn’t voted for or against the item as of Tuesday afternoon, an agency official said. Also that day, Comcast continued its lobbying against a part of the order that would require standstill carriage of independent cable channels after the bureau finds the indies made a prima facie case. An eight-page filing with arguments against the standstill provision was posted in docket 07-42 (http://xrl.us/bk29rg).
On RSNs, the bureau asked about what effect program access rules approved in 2007 and 2010 and other “regulatory and marketplace changes” since the Adelphia order have “had on the ability of unaffiliated RSNs to gain carriage on MVPD systems?” Since the order, “has there been an increase in the delivery of RSNs by terrestrial means” and has the number of such channels owned by cable operators changed, the bureau asked. It sought examples of withholding of RSNs and asked about the impact of such instances on MVPDs. “Has there been a change in the number of exclusive deals involving MVPDs and unaffiliated RSNs since the release of the Adelphia Order?"
The bureau sought comment on access of MVPDs other than Comcast and Time Warner Cable to those two companies’ RSNs. Spokespeople for Comcast and Time Warner Cable had no comment. “We also request comment on whether unaffiliated RSNs have obtained carriage on the Applicants’ cable systems and on what terms,” the bureau said. “Finally, we seek comment on the Applicants’ compliance with the Adelphia Order’s RSN conditions, the dispute resolution process and the effectiveness of these remedies. Do such conditions continue to be necessary in light of marketplace and regulatory changes since the time of their adoption?”