Major cable providers lost a key battle with government regulators on Friday, as a federal appeals court ruled that companies like Cablevision and Comcast must continue to make programming they own available to satellite companies.
The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. ruled that the Federal Communications Commission could continue its so-called “program access rule," passed by statute in 1992, that are intended to prevent cable companies from withholding the most desirable channels, particularly sports channels, from rivals.
The rule prevents cable companies from certain exclusive programming pacts, but they were set to expire in 2007 before the FCC extended them.
FCC chairman Julius Genachowski praised the ruling. In a statement, he said, “I'm pleased that the D.C. Circuit court has confirmed the Commission's authority to prevent vertically integrated cable companies from denying critical television programming to their competitors and consumers."
Cable companies had argued that the dramatic changes in the competive landscape had made the rules outdated, and the FCC even took note of the differences in the marketplace that took place even from 2002 and 2007.
But it also found that many of the most popular networks were still affiliated with a cable operator, and they concluded that conditions had not changed enough to allow the rule to lapse. The court noted that seven of the top 20 networks were affiliated with the fourth largest cable operators, Comcast, Time Warner, Cox and Cablevision.
The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. ruled that the Federal Communications Commission could continue its so-called “program access rule," passed by statute in 1992, that are intended to prevent cable companies from withholding the most desirable channels, particularly sports channels, from rivals.
The rule prevents cable companies from certain exclusive programming pacts, but they were set to expire in 2007 before the FCC extended them.
FCC chairman Julius Genachowski praised the ruling. In a statement, he said, “I'm pleased that the D.C. Circuit court has confirmed the Commission's authority to prevent vertically integrated cable companies from denying critical television programming to their competitors and consumers."
Cable companies had argued that the dramatic changes in the competive landscape had made the rules outdated, and the FCC even took note of the differences in the marketplace that took place even from 2002 and 2007.
But it also found that many of the most popular networks were still affiliated with a cable operator, and they concluded that conditions had not changed enough to allow the rule to lapse. The court noted that seven of the top 20 networks were affiliated with the fourth largest cable operators, Comcast, Time Warner, Cox and Cablevision.
