MASN Airs New Carriage Dispute With Comcast
Battle Brews Over Pa., Va. Markets
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 8/26/2008 8:43:00 PM
Washington -- The Mid-Atlantic Sports Network is asking the Federal Communications Commission to force Comcast Corp. to launch the regional sports network on cable systems in Harrisburg, Pa. and Roanoke and Lynchburg, Va.
MASN, a pay-TV channel that airs Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals baseball games, filed an FCC complaint on July 1, but chose to disclose it only Tuesday. In a press release, MASN said Comcast was not fully living up to a distribution agreement reached two years ago.
“MASN filed the complaint only after trying for more than a year to resolve the issue amicably, whereby Comcast would carry MASN throughout the network's entire television territory,” MASN's statement said.
Comcast has opposed MASN's carriage complaint, telling the FCC that the sports channel was attempting to use the regulatory process to renegotiate a contract it had freely signed.
Under the 1992 Cable Act, the FCC is authorized to referee carriage disputes between cable operators and independent cable networks.
