Comcast’s Promised Appeal of Bloomberg TV Order Seen Unlikely to Win Commissioner Support
FCC members probably won’t overturn a Media Bureau order that may require Comcast to move Bloomberg TV’s channel placement on some of its cable systems, industry and public interest attorneys told us. The bureau late Wednesday gave Comcast 60 days to comply with the order, in which it found Comcast to be in violation of the news neighborhood condition of the commission order approving Comcast’s purchase of control in NBCUniversal. Comcast promised it would appeal that order to the full commission (CD May 3 p6).
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"I don’t see any reasonable chance the full commission could reverse the Media Bureau on this,” said Michael Hazzard, a competition-law attorney with Arent Fox not involved in the Comcast/Bloomberg dispute. “The bureau was instrumental in putting those conditions together and I think the commission will find the Media Bureau has done a reasonable job here."
Comcast has a high bar to overcome to convince a majority of commissioners to overturn the bureau’s order, said Joel Kelsey, a policy adviser at Free Press, which opposed the Comcast-NBCU transaction. One question that remains is whether the order will remain effective during the coming appeal process or if Comcast will win a stay, he said. “I'm sure they will try to do that.” After exhausting its appeals at the commission, Comcast could turn to the courts, he said.
The commission should take a careful look at reversing the decision because it raises some First Amendment concerns, said Randolph May, president of the Free State Foundation. “When the FCC makes decisions requiring channel placement -- and consequently channel displacement -- based on fine determinations about the content of programming, the problematic nature of such governmental action is apparent,” said the frequent foe of regulation. “I'm not sure how the bureau’s action comports with what Comcast thought it ‘voluntarily’ agreed to, but I'm sure there must be some FCC commissioners that recognize the seriousness of the constitutional issues raised."
Bloomberg is pleased the FCC included the news neighborhooding condition when it approved the Comcast-NBCU transaction and that it’s willing to enforce it, said Greg Babyak, head of government affairs for Bloomberg. “Many in the public interest community have worked tirelessly with us to promote the availability of independent sources of news to the public and we look forward to working with Comcast to implement the order over the next 60 days.”