Cable Rivals Target Sports Nets

Satellite Firms, Telcos Play Hard as Exemption Lapses

By John Eggerton -- Multichannel News, 6/28/2010 12:01:00 AM

Washington — Cable rivals are going after sports programming they’ve been denied until now.

DirecTV and Dish Network want to carry Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia, and formally asked the cable provider last week to make it available. Comcast had been able to withhold that regional sports network from satellite-TV providers under an exemption in the FCC’s program-access rules governing programming affiliated with cable companies — an exemption that effectively expired last week.

Comcast also wants FCC approval of a deal to control NBC Universal, which could make it more inclined to consider the satellite firms’ request.

“[We] received their request and will review in due course and respond accordingly,” Comcast spokesman Tim Fitzpatrick said, without elaborating.

Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia televises Philadelphia Phillies Major League Baseball games, Flyers National Hockey League contests and 76ers National Basketball Association affairs. Comcast, through its Spectacor unit, owns the Sixers and Flyers.

Ahead of the program-access exemption’s expiration, Cox agreed to negotiate with AT&T U-verse and other providers in San Diego for Cox’s presentation of San Diego Padres baseball games.

AT&T and Verizon Communications also made a request to obtain MSG Networks’ high-definition programming for their subscribers in the New York City area.

AT&T said it would give MSG 10 days to begin negotiating before it would ask the FCC to compel the programmer to comply.

“MSG complies with federal regulations,” an MSG spokesman said. “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.”

MSG has thus far refused to make the HD versions of those channels — showing various New York pro teams — available to U-verse and FiOS.

Verizon filed an access complaint at the FCC in July 2009 over MSG’s HD feeds, and has followed up with another request for MSG HD programming, the company said.

“After the new rules went into effect, Verizon again requested access to the HD feeds consistent with the FCC’s order, but MSG has again declined and still refused to offer access on any terms,” spokesman David Fish said. “We are considering our options.”

The FCC has said operators could not satisfy the access requirement by making standard- definition (and not HD) feeds available.

Former MSG parent Cablevision Systems has challenged the FCC’s program-access rules in court. Comcast hasn’t, and has told legislators at hearings on the NBCU deal that it has no plans to do so.

Comcast said in written answers to Sen. Al Franken (D.-Minn.) on the issue of access to affiliated networks that it was ready to make CSN Philadelphia available to DirecTV as soon as the satellite operator made its exclusive “NFL Sunday Ticket” pay package of outof- market National Football League games available to Comcast and others.

CSN Philadelphia is already available to competing cable operators and to FiOS TV, but Comcast has not made it available to satellite operators, over objections to Sunday Ticket access.