Bloomberg, Comcast Trade FCC Filings

Continue to tussle over news neighborhooding condition in NBCU deal

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/1/2012 3:50:41 PM

The legal volleying between Bloomberg and Comcast over the news neighborhooding condition in the NBCU deal continued Monday.

Bloomberg told the FCC in a filing opposing Comcast's request for further review of an FCC clarification that Comcast cannot comply with the FCC mandate that it group Bloomberg TV with other news nets on its systems by doing so for HD channels rather than standard-definition versions

"No further guidance regarding the different nature of High Definition (‘HD') and SD network feeds, therefore, is needed from the Commission. It is time for Comcast to neighborhood BTV in all news neighborhoods."

In its own FCC filing, Comcast fired back at Bloomberg that its filing was "largely an irrelevant reiteration of its dissatisfaction that neither Comcast nor the Bureau has capitulated to Bloomberg's effort to rewrite the News Neighborhooding Condition to its liking."

The FCC in May upheld a complaint by Bloomberg against Comcast that it was not complying with the neighborhooding condition. From the get-go, Comcast said it would fight that decision, and has proved as good as its word.

That decision has been followed by a series of legal moves and counter-moves by Comcast and Bloomberg. Comcast says the NBCU condition does not mean that Comcast is required to relocate Bloomberg TV to three-and-four channel groupings "almost" all of which were in place "years before" the NBCU deal, which is why it is fighting the FCC decision. Bloomberg says it is fighting to stall having to comply with a condition it agreed to as part of the deal.