FCC Judge Defying Martin Aide's Order In Program Access Complaint
Sippel Compels NFL, Network, Comcast To File Pleadings On Jan. 7
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 1/6/2009 9:58:00 AM
Washington -- An administrative law judge is apparently defying an order by a Federal Communications Commission official that terminated his control over NFL Network's complaint to gain access to the vast majority of Comcast Corp.'s cable subscribers.
The ALJ's move seemed to be aimed at disrupting FCC's chairman Kevin Martin's apparent goal of producing a ruling by one of his subordinates in favor of NFL Network before he is forced from office on Jan. 20 with the arrival of the Obama Administration.
FCC Media Bureau chief Monica Desai took back the NFL Network-Comcast case on Dec. 31, saying ALJ Richard Sippel failed to rule within 60 days as required when she referred the matter to him in early October.
Comcast has asked the full FCC to review Desai's action and stay the effect of her ruling while the review is pending.
On Tuesday, Sippel issued a two-page order requiring NFL Network and Comcast to keep the case going by filing a number of pleadings no later than 4 p.m. on Jan. 7. Sippel gave the FCC's Enforcement Bureau an additional 24 hours to file.
Sippel's order indicated that he wanted the case to go forward while Comcast's stay was pending, saying "expedited discovery and procedural dates previously set require and deserve compliance by all parties," especially the NFL Network since it wanted speedy action on its complaint in the first place.
An FCC spokeswoman said, "We are reviewing the order." Comcast wasn't commenting, a spokeswoman said. Sippel didn't return a reporter's call.
An NFL Network spokesman said: “We just received the order. Our attorneys are reviewing it.”
Comcast distributes NFL Network on a sport tier purchased by about 2 million subscribers. NFL Network, claiming discrimination, wants the FCC to force Comcast to deliver the channel to the 70% of subscribers who have a digital package. Comcast has 24.4 million subscribers nationally.
Desai, in a Christmas Eve order, took back five other program carriage cases from Sippel and added the NFL Network-Comcast dispute on New Year's Eve.
In his order Tuesday, Sippel told the parties in the other five cases to produce the same filings he required of NFL Network and Comcast.
The other cases are: WealthTV against Time Warner Cable Bright House Networks, Cox Communications, and Comcast; and Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, which televises Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals Major League Baseball games, against Comcast.
WealthTV alleges that it was denied carriage to allow the cable companies to favor a channel --MOJO -- with similar content, violating anti-discrimination provisions in federal cable law.
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Do I understand correctly; FCC Media Bureau chief Monica Desai took these complaints away from FCC administrative law judge Richard Sippel because he concluded the bureau’s deadline for a decision was not enough time to render a fair verdict. Let’s see if we can take another complaint, this one by a leased access programmer that petitioned to have FCC rule on whether cable sites were to provide Internet reception IPTV signals and where a U.S. Senator was told on August 12 a decision had been reached, yet the Media Bureau won’t release the results. Now is this correct? In the NFL case Desai thinks the judge is taking too long yet in the leased access case, the bureau still hasn’t released a decision reached over five months ago. Now someone please show me the sense in this.
Charlie Stogner - 1/8/2009 2:28:00 AM EST -
Alright -- an ALJ with a backbone! Martin is clearly furious that there is an FCC staffer with the job protection to resist being another pawn in his personal vendetta against cable. One might have expected Martin to follow Bush's lead and use his final days to paper over his historically bad tenure with a fig leaf (eg Bush kicking the crap out of the environment for 7+ years then hoping we''ll forget if he declares some of the ocean off-limits to development). At least Martin is being true to himself: a thug to the end.
Rob Johnson - 1/6/2009 9:13:00 PM EST
