Press Release
FCC Tells Comcast to Stop Discriminating Against Competing News Channels
Contact: Timothy Karr, 201-533-8838
WASHINGTON – On Wednesday, the Federal Communications Commission issued an order directing Comcast to stop denying Bloomberg placement in Comcast’s “news” neighborhoods. The ruling is in response to Bloomberg’s complaint filed last June.
Bloomberg’s complaint alleged that Comcast had violated a condition of its merger with NBCUniversal by refusing to place Bloomberg Television near other news channels, including the Comcast-owned business news network, CNBC. The FCC’s condition stated that if Comcast creates “news neighborhoods” in its channel lineup, it may not exclude competing, unaffiliated news networks from that roster.
The text of the order can be found here: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-12-694A1.pdf
Free Press Policy Adviser Joel Kelsey made the following statement:
“Merger conditions are only as good as an agency’s willingness to enforce them. The FCC did the right thing by acting on this complaint and protecting competition among independent news sources. While we are pleased that the FCC has finally taken action, we note that the complaint has been pending for close to a year. A complainant with fewer resources than Bloomberg might not have had the wherewithal to survive the process.”
Bloomberg’s complaint alleged that Comcast had violated a condition of its merger with NBCUniversal by refusing to place Bloomberg Television near other news channels, including the Comcast-owned business news network, CNBC. The FCC’s condition stated that if Comcast creates “news neighborhoods” in its channel lineup, it may not exclude competing, unaffiliated news networks from that roster.
The text of the order can be found here: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-12-694A1.pdf
Free Press Policy Adviser Joel Kelsey made the following statement:
“Merger conditions are only as good as an agency’s willingness to enforce them. The FCC did the right thing by acting on this complaint and protecting competition among independent news sources. While we are pleased that the FCC has finally taken action, we note that the complaint has been pending for close to a year. A complainant with fewer resources than Bloomberg might not have had the wherewithal to survive the process.”
