DirecTV, Dish Formally Ask For Access To Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia
Top DBS Provider Would Not Say Whether It Will File Complaint With FCC
John Eggerton -- Multichannel News, 6/25/2010 11:29:14 AM
DirecTV and Dish Network have requested access to Comcast's terrestrially delivered regional sports network in Philadelphia.
"We have formally requested the programming," said DirecTV spokesman Robert Mercer.
He had no comment on whether DirecTV would file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission if the cable company did not make Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia available.
"[We] received their request and will review in due course and respond accordingly," said Comcast spokesman Tim Fitzpatrick. He would not elaborate.
A Dish spokesperson was not available for comment at press time.
Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia televises Philadelphia Phillies' Major League Baseball games, as well as Flyers' National Hockey League contests and Sixers' National Basketball Association affairs. Comcast, through its Spectacor unit, owns the NHL and NBA franchises.
The request follows the FCC's notice that the complaint-process portion of its January decision to close the so-called terrestrial exemption had been approved and that that process was open for business.
The FCC in January changed its rules to say that distributors who did not make their co-owned terrestrially delivered nets available to competitors on reasonable terms and conditions would be presumptively in violation of its program access rules. Before that the FCC had exempted terrestrial nets, in most cases it was regional sports netsworks at issue, because of language in the statute that specified the access rules applied to satellite-delivered networks.In advance of the OMB sign-off announcement, Cox agreed to start negotiating with AT&T and others in San Diego for its presentation of Padres games and AT&T made its own formal request for MSG Networks HD programming in Connecticut. But AT&T was not reluctant to add a sting to the tail. It gave Cablevision and MSG 10 days to begin negotiating before it would ask the FCC to make them.
"MSG complies with federal regulations," said an MSG spokesman. "We are pleased to have AT&T as a customer
and to provide U-verse subscribers in Connecticut with access to every single game on MSG and MSG Plus."
He would not elaborate, but that was a reference to the standard-definition versions of the service The unspoken message: MSG apparently does not plan to make the HD versions available.
Also part of the FCC's decision was that operators could not satisfy the access requirement by making standard-definition feeds available, but not HD feeds, as is the case with MSG in Connecticut.
Cablevision has challenged the FCC's program-access rules in court, Comcast has not and told legislators at a Hill hearing on the Comcast/NBCU deal that it has no plans to do so.
In written answers to Sen. Al Franken on the issue of access to affiliated nets, Comcast chairman Brian Roberts said that it was ready to make Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia available to DirecTV as soon as the satellite operator made its exclusive Sunday Ticket package avaiable to Comcast and others.
Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia is already available to competing cable operators. RCN has carried the net since its launch in 1997 and Verizon's FiOS since that service launched in Philadelphia, according to Fitzpatrick.
But Comcst has not made it available to satellite operators, which, the company points out, have exclusive
programming like the National Football League out-of-market pacakge Sunday Ticket that helps differentiate the DBS service.
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In my opinion, the difference here is access to home teams on television. With the NFL you can see the Eagles on TV in Philadelphia no matter what service you have. This makes sense because I live in Philadelphia-pay Philadelphia taxes- and root for Philadelphia teams.
I CAN'T see the Phillies, Flyers or Sixers games because they are about 90% exclusively broadcast on Comcast and I have direct.
This doesn't make sense. It hasn't made sense for years but it was legal because of the loophole. Now its no longer legal and its very disappointing that the leading business entity in our city (Comcast) doesn't follow the law. I guess thats what happens when you're so big no one cares what you do.
Jonathan Fink - 7/5/2010 10:14:16 AM EDT -
Comcast is right about Directv having an exclusive with the NFL Sunday Ticket. What they neglect to mention is that ALL the Philadelphia Eagles games are on Comcast. Also the best NFL matchups are also on Comcast. Only a very limited number of games of the Flyers, Sixers, and Phillies are on Directv. Not exactly apples and oranges.
I have the NFL Sunday Ticket and have considered dropping it because there are only a handful of games during the season that I want to watch that are not on the other outlets.
FIOS has CSN Philly on its network but doesn't have all the Flyers, Sixers and Phillies games. That's because if there is a conflict one of the games is put on another channel not on FIOS. I hope Directv is smart enough to get this situation fixed. I'm looking forward to dropping my Comcast service.
John B - 6/29/2010 7:24:35 PM EDT -
The fundamental issue is whether distributors should be allowed to have exclusive access to programming to differentiate their service from their competitors. If yes, then the FCC should get out of the way and let market economics decide distribution. If no, then exclusive programming of any kind should not be allowed. DirecTV can't have it both ways.
Aaron - 6/28/2010 6:27:40 AM EDT -
Brian Roberts is an idiot. He needs to talk to the NFL about its Sunday Ticket package as they are the owners of it. DirecTV just happened to bid the most money for exclusive access to the package and offer it to their customers only. Comcast, Dish, TWC, and every other MSO had the opportunity to bid for the package when DirecTV did. They either didn't bid or were out bid.
Comparing access to CSN Philly and NFL:ST is like comparing apples and oranges. Both are fruit/sports programming, but they are very different beasts...
jb - 6/26/2010 10:41:29 PM EDT
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