Categories: OLD Media Moves

FCC rules in favor of Bloomberg Television

The Federal Communications Commission said Thursday night that Comcast Corp. has to put the Bloomberg TV business channel near other news channels in so-called news neighborhoods in the 35 largest television markets.

Bob Fernandez of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes, “The case was viewed as a test of the FCC’s will to enforce voluntary commitments made in 2011 as part of the giant Comcast/NBCUniversal deal.

“Thursday’s decision is a win for Bloomberg TV, which insisted that Comcast abide by the ‘neighborhooding’ condition in the FCC’s agreement allowing the merger deal to close.

“Bloomberg TV had fought for the condition, saying that Comcast had an incentive to exile it far from other news channels on its cable systems, which have 22 million subscribers. If it were so exiled, Bloomberg TV said, it could not compete directly with CNBC, the market-leading business-news channel owned by Comcast.

“After reluctantly agreeing to the neighborhooding condition in merger negotiations, Comcast disputed that it had to relocate the Bloomberg TV channel to news neighborhoods after the deal closed.

“Comcast said it would be an inconvenience to subscribers and a violation of its First Amendment right to place channels where it wanted.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.