Administrative Judge To Rebuke FCC Over NFL Net Carriage Decision
An FCC administrative law judge (ALJ) today is "set to rebuke" the FCC over a case involving the NFL's complaint that Comcast "won't carry its channel on its most popular tier of service," according to Amy Schatz of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. The decision is a "blow to the NFL, which has tried to expand the audience of its fledgling NFL Network." In the expected decision, the ALJ "essentially tossed the agency's preliminary decision and said a full hearing will be needed to sort out the facts." The FCC's staff last month "concluded that Comcast had improperly denied carriage to the NFL Network by carrying it on a digital sports tier." A Comcast spokesperson declined to comment; an NFL spokesperson said that the league was "pleased that the matter would be handled by an administrative law court and not go through 'a needless appeal' to the FCC first" (WSJ.com, 11/20). MULTICHANNEL NEWS’ Ted Hearn reported ALJ Arthur Steinberg "made two procedural rulings that will likely mean Comcast can keep the NFL Network from automatically reaching the vast majority of its customers for the rest" of the current NFL season. Steinberg's ruling also "tossed out the Media Bureau's conclusion that Comcast had discriminated against the NFL Network, a finding that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell had been trumpeting in letters to Capitol Hill and in editorials circulated to media outlets." Meanwhile, Steinberg also is hearing several similar cases, including MASN's case against against Comcast. Under Steinberg's ruling, those cases "will also start from the beginning and likely won't be resolved for many months" (MULTICHANNEL.com, 11/19).
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