Massillon Cable: Keep News Corp.’s DirecTV Conditions
Ohio Cable Operator Files Comments with FCC
By Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 4/9/2007 3:50:00 PM
Massillon Cable TV, which is embroiled in a dispute with Fox Cable Networks, joined other independent cable companies to ask that News Corp. continue to be bound by special conditions -- set by federal regulators -- even after it sells its stake in DirecTV.
The Ohio cable operator filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission Friday in support of previous filings by the National Cable Television Cooperative and the American Cable Association regarding Liberty Media’s $11 billion acquisition of Rupert Murdoch’s 38.5% stake in the direct-broadcast satellite provider.
In 2001, Massillon Cable and Fox Cable amended their carriage deal so that the programmer would provide additional Cleveland Indians Major League Baseball games, on its FSN Ohio regional sports network, in exchange for higher license fees, according to the cable operator’s FCC filing.
But after the 2005 baseball season, Fox “stopped providing any Cleveland Indians baseball games but refused to adjust the affiliation fee,” Massillon Cable said.
Fox’s sports network lost carriage of the Indians to a new RSN, SportsTime Ohio, one year ago. Fastball Sports Productions -- controlled by Larry Dolan’s family, which owns the Indians ball club -- launched the RSN in March 2006.
After a period of unsuccessful negotiation, during which it continued to pay the “enhanced” fee, Massillon Cable said it demanded that its dispute with FSN Ohio be arbitrated, in compliance with the conditions set by the FCC on News Corp. in 2003 as part of the DirecTV acquisition. Those conditions included distributors having the option of submitting carriage disputes regarding News Corp.-affiliated RSNs and TV stations to arbitration.
“Fox, however, has resisted arbitration,” Massillon Cable told the FCC.
The dispute is currently in arbitration, according to Massillon’s lawyer, Peter Gutmann. But Fox is now arguing that the matter shouldn’t be in arbitration, and that the FCC’s conditions mandate arbitration in only narrow circumstances, such as when a sports-network deal is up for renewal, Gutmann added.
Officials at Fox Cable couldn’t be reached for comment Monday.
Both the NCTC and ACA have asked the FCC to continue to hold News Corp. to the conditions the agency set back when the media giant acquired its DirecTV stake, and Massillon Cable has joined in that request.
“Based upon its own recent experience, Massillon shares NCTC’s concern that, unless explicitly ordered as part of any FCC approval of the subject transaction, Fox will use the proposed restructuring of its RSN ownership as a means to evade the market protections that the FCC imposed in its [2003] order, including the expedited arbitration mechanism for competitors with News Corp.’s DBS facilities for carriage of News Corp.’s RSNs,” Massillon Cable said in its filing.
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