New York — News media outlet Bloomberg has filed a formal complaint with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), accusing Comcast of violating conditions the company agreed upon as part of its merger with NBC Universal.
Bloomberg claims Comcast breached the FCC’s request to “carry all independent news and business channels” when carrying other news/and or business new channels in a neighborhood. The company alleges that the nation’s largest cable provider placed Bloomberg TV in a space outside of the traditional “neighborhood” where other news channels reside, and wants Comcast to move their station closer to similar channels like CNN and CNBC.
Comcast claims they have not “neighborhooded” channels on their systems and that the FCC order applies only to future neighborhooding.
“The Commission stressed the critical role of independent news in its Order and indeed, this was a significant component of the conditions that enabled the FCC to have the confidence to move forward with the merger,” said Greg Babyak, head of government affairs at Bloomberg.
Bloomberg originally filed a complaint to Comcast about this issue earlier this month. Comcast responded to those complaints with a letter arguing that the news outlet is only using the merger between the company and NBCU “to obtain more favorable treatment than it would ever have been entitled to absent that transaction.”
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/3gfft2e (Wired) (Scribd: Bloomberg complaint)
http://tinyurl.com/3pzu3rk (Scribd: Bloomberg complaint)
