Court to Hear Tennis Channel Case April 18

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is scheduled to hold oral argument April 18 in the case of Tennis Channel v. FCC.

Back in January 2015 the FCC reversed an initial decision and denied Tennis Channel's program-carriage complaint against Comcast.

An FCC administrative law judge issued a decision against Comcast in December 2011 and the FCC, under then chairman Julius Genachowski, upheld it. A D.C. Federal court overturned that decision in May 2013, saying there was no evidence that affiliation played a role in the level of carriage Comcast had provided the channel. 

Related: Sinclair Closes on Tennis Channel Acquisition

After the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of the federal appeals court decision, Tennis Channel in March of 2014 petitioned the commission to issue a new order resolving what it said were new carriage-complaint tests created by the court.

Following the January FCC decision reversing itself, Tennis took it to court, arguing that the FCC abused its discretion when it failed to take another crack at better buttressing the initial decision against Comcast.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.