ACA Targets Case For Comcast/NBCU Conditions

The American Cable Association continues to push the Federal Communications Commission to adopt conditions on the Comcast/NBC Universal deal that it says would reduce the competitive harms to its members.

In a filing with the FCC, ACA said its proposals did not go much beyond previous conditions on vertical mergers -- like DirecTV/News Corp. and Time Warner Cable -- and would "temper both the vertical and horizontal harms." ACA wants Comcast/NBCU to have to make its TV stations and regional sports networks available to other pay TV distributors on a stand-alone basis, something station and cable news channel owner Allbritton Communications is also arguing strongly for. It also wants independent baseball-style arbitration for stations, RSNs and national cable nets, a prohibition on charging smaller cable operators more than 5% more than the lowest price paid by a competing pay provider in a market for the NBC station or RSN.