GSN Cries Foul Against Cablevision

By John Eggerton -- Multichannel News, 10/17/2011 12:01:00 AM

Washington-- GSN has filed a program-carriage complaint against Cablevision Systems, saying the cable provider used its market power to favor its own affiliated networks at GSN’s expense in violation of Federal Communications Commission rules.

It wants the agency to force Cablevision to carry the network on what it says are “nondiscriminatory terms and condit ions” and pay a fine. FCC rules prevent multichannel video providers from discriminating against unaffi liated networks in favor of ones in which it has a financial interest.

LOST FEMALE VIEWERS
GSN said Cablevision’s migration of the channel last February from the basic tier to a male-targeted sports tier estranged GSN from its primarily female audience.

GSN maintains that move was inconsistent with other operators who carry the network on basic, rather than specialty tiers, and that the move favored Cablevision’s similarly situated affiliated networks, WE tv and spinoff Wedding Central, which it did not reposition. Wedding Central, which launched in August 2009, was shut down on July 1 as part of AMC Networks’ spinoff from Cablevision in a bid to better allocate resources.

GSN says the move to a sports tier caused its ratings to “crater” in the New York DMA, the largest TV market in the country.

The network also said that when a member of its management committee, who is also a DirecTV executive, sought to help “undo” Cablevision’s move of the channel, Cablevision suggested a resolution that would have included DirecTV’s distribution of Wedding Central, which DirecTV had already decided not to carry. GSN said Cablevision’s tying of the “fair distribution” of an unaffiliated network with the “unearned benefits” of an affiliated network constituted a second, separate, violation of FCC program-carriage rules.


GSN is owned by DirecTV and Sony Pictures Entertainment.

‘SELF-SERVING PLOY’
Cablevision was dismissive of the complaint: “The programming comparisons made by GSN — WE tv’s programming for all women vs. old game shows — make a mockery of the FCC’s program-carriage rules. We believe the FCC will see through this self-serving ploy and reject GSN’s claim.”

GSN said in a statement: “Our filing speaks for itself. Our dealings with Cablevision have been utterly inconsistent with the way in which all of our other clients value and distribute GSN.”