Bloomberg still battling Comcast about Bloomberg TV placement

Bloomberg LP has filed another complaint with the Federal Communications Commission against Comcast Corp., claiming that the cable giant is thumbing its nose at conditions the government put on it as part of approving its 2011 takeover of NBCUniversal, the parent of CNBC.

Joe Flint of the Los Angeles Times writes, “At issue is where Bloomberg’s business news channel is located on Comcast-owned cable systems in relation to Comcast’s own channels CNBC and MSNBC. Bloomberg has claimed that a condition of the merger requires Comcast to move Bloomberg to the same ‘neighborhood’ as its own CNBC and MSNBC channels.

“‘We need a passport to get to the news neighborhood from where we are now,’ cracked Greg Babyak, head of government Affairs for Bloomberg LP.

“Comcast has countered that the FCC’s conditions only apply if Comcast were to start placing similar channels next to each other on the dial, a practice known as ‘neighborhooding.’

“In its latest FCC filing, Bloomberg claimed Comcast has done just that. It cited two markets — Crescent City, Fla., and Claxton, Ga. — where Comcast created a neighborhood of news channels but left out Bloomberg Television.

“‘Comcast is favoring its own programming content and discriminating against competitors,’ Bloomberg attorneys told the FCC.

“A spokeswoman for Comcast denied that the company has created any new news neighborhoods since the NBCUniversal transaction closed last year.”

Read more here.