Comcast fires back at Bloomberg

Comcast Corp. has fired back at Bloomberg LP, which last month asked the Federal Communications Commission to determine whether the cable giant has violating the conditions the federal government put on it in return for approving its takeover of NBCUniversal.

Joe Flint of the Los Angeles Times writes, “At issue is where Bloomberg’s financial news channel Bloomberg TV is placed on Comcast cable systems. Bloomberg has argued that per the FCC’s order signing off on the deal its channel needs to be near its rival CNBC, which Comcast acquired when it took control NBC Universal.

“Bloomberg has accused Comcast of thumbing its nose at the FCC order.

“Comcast said that is not the case and on Wednesday responded to Bloomberg’s FCC complaint with its own filing at the regulatory agency.

“‘The complaint represents Bloomberg’s second attempt to extract preferential channel placement on Comcast’s cable systems through regulatory gamesmanship,’ Comcast said in its filing.

“The two sides are debating in part over the definition of a neighborhood, which is when similar channels are placed next to each on a cable system. Bloomberg’s complaint, Comcast claimed, is ‘based on an arbitrary and baseless definition of a news neighborhood as ‘four news channels within five positions.’ But that definition was neither supplied nor endorsed by the Commission. Instead, it is entirely Bloomberg’s invention.'”

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