Federal Appeals Court Grants TV Programmers Stay i
Post# of 17650
Posted On: 11/21/2014 3:23:48 PM
Federal Appeals Court Grants TV Programmers Stay in FCC Dispute
Friday 21 November 2014
Click Here for more AT&T Charts.By Shalini Ramachandran A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. on Friday handed TV channel-owners a preliminary victory in their standoff with the Federal Communications Commission over disclosure of programming contracts, raising the prospect of further delays to the agency's review of big pay-TV industry mergers.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted the TV programmers' emergency request to postpone an FCC order that would require them to make their contracts with pay-TV providers, including Comcast Corp. and DirecTV, available to third parties as part of the merger reviews. The next step would be for the two sides to litigate the underlying case.
The media companies, which include Walt Disney Co., Time Warner Inc. and CBS Corp., fear sensitive business information will fall into the wrong hands and put them at a competitive disadvantage. The programming contracts include information such as the prices pay-TV providers pay for carriage of TV channels .
The dispute has already delayed the reviews of Comcast's pending merger with Time Warner Cable and AT&T's acquisition of DirecTV. If the FCC decides to press its case in court, that could slow the process further.
Some lawyers say the FCC could also choose to drop the matter and continue with the merger process. The court said the agency "has access to the relevant documents at issue in this matter and can continue to evaluate the proposed merger during the stay."
Friday 21 November 2014
Click Here for more AT&T Charts.By Shalini Ramachandran A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. on Friday handed TV channel-owners a preliminary victory in their standoff with the Federal Communications Commission over disclosure of programming contracts, raising the prospect of further delays to the agency's review of big pay-TV industry mergers.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted the TV programmers' emergency request to postpone an FCC order that would require them to make their contracts with pay-TV providers, including Comcast Corp. and DirecTV, available to third parties as part of the merger reviews. The next step would be for the two sides to litigate the underlying case.
The media companies, which include Walt Disney Co., Time Warner Inc. and CBS Corp., fear sensitive business information will fall into the wrong hands and put them at a competitive disadvantage. The programming contracts include information such as the prices pay-TV providers pay for carriage of TV channels .
The dispute has already delayed the reviews of Comcast's pending merger with Time Warner Cable and AT&T's acquisition of DirecTV. If the FCC decides to press its case in court, that could slow the process further.
Some lawyers say the FCC could also choose to drop the matter and continue with the merger process. The court said the agency "has access to the relevant documents at issue in this matter and can continue to evaluate the proposed merger during the stay."
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