The Federal Communications Commission ruled in favor of Bloomberg Television on Wednesday, saying Comcast must program the less-watched cable channel in the same “neighborhood” on the cable dial as competitors Fox Business Network and CNBC and more general news channels like CNN and MSNBC.
Amy Chozick of the New York Times reports, “Bloomberg had complained that Comcast, the country’s largest cable operator, was violating an F.C.C. condition upon its acquisition of NBCUniversal that it not favor its own channels. In separate filings, Bloomberg’s lawyers pushed for the commission to require Comcast to put Bloomberg near NBCUniversal’s CNBC and MSNBC.
“In one complaint, Bloomberg accused Comcast executives of making excuses about why its channel couldn’t be moved closer to its own NBCUniversal news channels. ‘Comcast has argued that such moves are expensive, time consuming, cause the need for further moves as one channel displaces another and create consumer confusion,’ read the Bloomberg complaint, which disputed those arguments.
“The commission’s decision will make it easier for viewers to find Bloomberg TV and could prompt a wave of similar lawsuits from niche cable programmers like Current TV and Al Jazeera, who also want to be easily accessed near more mainstream channels.”
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