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, inJuly 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. Comcastsays the FCC decision violates the First Amendment and that Tennis Channel
filed its complaint past the statute of limitations so it should be moot.
