Charter's Dealings With AWE Show Anticompetitive OTT Bent, Herring Networks Says
The FCC needs to take a closer look at Charter Communications' anticompetitive practices on over-the-top services (OTT), and consider conditions to protect against discriminatory behavior, Herring Networks said in an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 15-149. In the…
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filing on a meeting between Herring President Charles Herring and staff from the Office of the General Counsel and from Chairman Tom Wheeler's office, Herring said its AWE channel has run into problems with Charter because its affiliation agreement with the cable company included a prohibited alternative distribution method provision banning Herring from showing a linear feed of AW over any OTT device or service, leading to a slowed deployment of AWE via OTT. Charter declined to negotiate out that provision, Herring said. But after sending formal notice of termination of the existing affiliation agreement and pointing out concerns about the provision -- "especially while seeking merger approval from the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission" -- Charter modified the language, Herring said. Charter -- in the process of buying Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable -- still refuses to review third-party set-top box numbers AWE provided or to review Herring's America News Network channel, Herring said, saying that is a lack of good faith negotiating. Charter has "a fundamental lack of respect for independent programmers, even with proven performance value in the marketplace," Herring said. "If this is suggestive of how Charter treats an independent network pre-merger, we are highly concerned about the treatment in store for independent networks post-merger." In a statement Monday, Charter said it's "committed to ensuring its customers have access to independent and diverse programming and we are gratified by the support we have received to date from independent programmers including TV One, BabyFirst, One World Sports, Crown Media, RFD-TV and The Blaze.” It also said of online video distributors, "there is no more friendly broadband provider ... than Charter. Charter’s slowest speed is 60 Mbps, we have no data caps, no contracts and no modem fees. Also, Netflix, which strongly opposed to the Comcast/TWC transaction, supports the Charter, TWC and Bright House transactions.”