MASN Files Complaint To FCC, Seeking Carriage In Two Markets

MASN has filed a complaint with the FCC to require Comcast to launch the RSN in two markets where Comcast owns competing RSNs. Comcast carries CSN Philadelphia in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, market and CSN Mid-Atlantic in the Roanoke/Lynchburg, Virginia, market. The complaint states Comcast's "material omissions in contracting with MASN in August 2006 thus became the means for Comcast to continue discriminatory treatment of MASN, with the aim of impeding competition" (MASN). Comcast "dubs the complaint without merit." A Comcast rep last week said, "MASN signed an agreement almost 2 years ago to be carried on Comcast systems, and now MASN has simply decided that it no longer likes the deal it made. Comcast has fulfilled its part of the bargain and intends to hold MASN to the deal it struck" (CABLEFAX DAILY, 8/27). Comcast told the FCC that MASN "was attempting to use the regulatory process to renegotiate a contract it had freely signed" (MULTICHANNEL.com, 8/26).