Michigan Court Rules Against Comcast PEG Migration
Warren, Mich. Receives Temporary Restraining Order In Advance Of Deadline
By Linda Haugsted -- Multichannel News, 1/15/2008 6:09:00 AM MT
A federal court is not the only entity preventing Comcast from its PEG channel migration in Michigan.
On Jan. 14, the Macomb County Circuit Court ruled in favor of Warren, Mich., which sought a last-minute temporary restraining order against the operator on the eve of its planned Jan. 15 channel migration.
Judge David Viviano has scheduled a hearing Jan. 22 to determine whether to make the order permanent.
Warren went to court to protect its four popular channels, said Mary Michaels, assistant city attorney. The community has five school districts, and Comcast distributes school programming to each district on two educational channels, Michaels explained. The other two slots are government channels.
“Parents really rely on them,” she said.
The lawsuit may set precedent for other Michigan communities because Warren attorneys will argue that their local PEG requirements are not superseded by the state's recently passed law moving franchising authority to the state government.
Michaels asserts that the local contract mandates that the PEG channels remain on their current placements through the life of the contract.
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