ACA: FCC Unwilling to Check RSN Fees

The American Cable Association Tuesday took aim at what it said appeared to be the FCC's plan not to apply any regional sports network conditions to the AT&T/DirecTV merger, which the FCC is widely expected to approve in the next week or so.

“ACA is deeply disappointed that the Federal Communications Commission appears headed toward approving AT&T’s merger with DirecTV without shielding consumers from being overcharged for three Root Sports regional sports networks (RSNs) owned by DirecTV and a fourth Roots Sports RSN currently co-owned by AT&T and DirecTV," said ACA president Matthew Polka in a statement.

ACA is concerned that the deal will result in higher prices for rivals' access to DirecTV's four owned RSNs, which operate as Root Sports Northwest, Pittsburgh, Rocky Mountain and Southwest, a point it made in comments to the FCC last month.

Similar concerns were raised earlier this month by Houston cable provider enTouch Systems.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.