Court Sets Oral Argument in Tennis Channel Case

Comcast is challenging FCC program carriage decision

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 12/7/2012 12:11:01 PM

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has slated an oral argument in Comcast's challenge to the FCC's Tennis Channel decision for Feb. 25 at 9:30 a.m.

The FCC, in its first upholding of a program carriage complaint, in July ruled 3-2 along party lines that the nation's largest cable operator had discriminated against Tennis Channel in favor of Comcast's own similarly situated co-owned programming networks Versus (now NBC Sports Net) and Golf Channel.

Comcast argues that it did not unreasonably restrain Tennis Channel's ability to compete and did not discriminate on the basis of affiliation. Comcast says the FCC decision violates the First Amendment and that Tennis Channel filed its complaint past the statute of limitations so it should be moot.