FCC to resolve Bloomberg-Comcast dispute

The Federal Communications Commission said Friday that it will issue an opinion and order which will resolve a dispute between Bloomberg Television and Comcast at an open meeting on Sept. 26.

Steve Donahue of FierceCable.com reports, “Bloomberg had complained in 2011 that in order to meet conditions of its acquisition of NBCUniversal, Comcast should be forced to carry its business news network in the same channel neighborhood as top business network CNBC. The FCC initially said it agreed with Bloomberg, but the commission stayed that decision last year.

“In a notice it issued on Friday about the open meeting, the FCC didn’t indicate how it will resolve the Bloomberg – Comcast dispute.

“Comcast has also had a dispute with Tennis Channel, another independent network, which complained that Comcast discriminated against the network and gave wider distribution to Golf Channel and other Comcast-owned networks. On Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals rejected a request from Tennis Channel to rehear a complaint it had filed against Comcast.

Read more here. See the FCC notice.

In response to the FCC’s release of the agenda for the Sept. 26 meeting, Bloomberg LP’s Greg Babyak released the following statement:

“Bloomberg is very appreciative that FCC Chairwoman Clyburn has agreed to consider the Order resolving Bloomberg’s complaint that Comcast has violated the ‘news neighborhooding’ condition of the Comcast/NBCU merger, and to do so as part of the September 26th Open Meeting. It has been well over two and one-half years since Comcast agreed to the neighorhooding condition and well over a year since the Media Bureau found Comcast in violation of that condition. While Comcast has enjoyed the benefits of the merger since January of 2011, much of the public is still deprived of the benefits of enforcement of the condition. We appreciate the Commission’s willingness to move to ensure greater diversity of voices in the provision of news.”