Classic Sports Network files FCC complaint against Cablevision Systems Corporation.NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 17, 1997-- In first complaint of its kind under 1992 Cable Act, Classic Sports claims Cablevision violated federal law by demanding an ownership interest and exclusive distribution rights as a condition of carriage CLASSIC SPORTS TO VIGOROUSLY OPPOSE CABLEVISION'S AGREEMENT TO ACQUIRE MADISON SQUARE Madison Square is a neighborhood on the East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan, centered on a 6.8 acre (2.75 Hectare) public park in the New York City borough of Manhattan, named for James Madison, fourth President of the United States and co-author of the United GARDEN Claims Cablevision's deal with ITT ITT Initial Teacher Training (UK) ITT I Think That ITT Invitation To Tender ITT Individual Time Trial (professional cycling) ITT Intention-To-Treat ITT In This Thread (forums) raises antitrust issues Classic Sports Network, an independently-owned cable- and satellite-delivered programming service, announced that it filed a complaint today with the Federal Communications Commission Federal Communications Commission (FCC), independent executive agency of the U.S. government established in 1934 to regulate interstate and foreign communications in the public interest. alleging that Cablevision Systems Corporation has violated federal law by demanding an ownership interest in Classic Sports and exclusive distribution rights to its programming as a precondition to carrying the network on its cable television systems. The complaint specifies that Cablevision has engaged in coercive behavior in an effort to force Classic Sports to provide Cablevision with exclusive distribution rights and equity ownership as a condition of carriage, and has retaliated against Classic Sports for failing to grant the full range of exclusive rights and ownership demanded by Cablevision. "In blatant violation of the 1992 Cable Act, Cablevision has denied us any additional distribution -- particularly in the major New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of and Connecticut markets - - until we agree to provide them with either exclusivity in certain regions or equity ownership in our company," said Brian Bedol Brian Bedol is an American television executive and founder of the sports television channels Classic Sports Network and College Sports Television. Bedol owned CSN from 1995 to 1997 and CSTV from 2003 to 2006. , chief executive officer of Classic Sports Network. Classic Sports Network is currently carried in fewer than 50,000 of Cablevision's 2.8 million cable homes nationwide. "Cablevision's conduct has gone far beyond strenuous, arm's-length negotiations, in which we have been more than willing to engage, to discrimination, coercion and bad faith," said Mr. Bedol. "They have engaged in a consistent and conscious pattern of coercive conduct over a two-year period in an attempt to control not just access to programming, but the programming itself. Their refusal to deal Refusal to deal is one of several anti-competitive practices forbidden in countries which have free market economies. For example, in Australia:
Separately, Classic Sports Network announced that it will "vigorously oppose" Cablevision's agreement with ITT to purchase the half interest in Madison Square Garden Current arenas in the National Hockey League Western Conference Eastern Conference that it does not already own. "It is apparent that Cablevision's overall strategy is to dominate sports television programming and distribution in New York to the exclusion of competitive or independent programmers like Classic Sports," said Mr. Bedol. "The end result of such a strategy, especially in light of Cablevision's history of anti-competitive behavior, would likely constitute a violation of federal antitrust laws antitrust laws n. acts adopted by Congress to outlaw or restrict business practices considered to be monopolistic or which restrain interstate commerce. The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 declared illegal "every contract, combination.... . Accordingly, we feel we have no choice but to vigorously oppose Cablevision's acquisition of Madison Square Garden before all appropriate New York State and federal regulatory agencies." He noted that if the sale to Cablevision of ITT's interest in MSG MSG: see glutamic acid. is consummated, Cablevision would control virtually all of the sports programming throughout the New York metropolitan area New York–Northern New Jersey–Long Island is the most populous metropolitan area in the United States and the third most populous in the world, after Tokyo and Mexico City. -- the largest and most important sports market in the country -- and, at the same time, would control cable systems serving more than 60 percent of subscribers in the same area. Furthermore, he added, Cablevision has announced plans to reorganize its sports programming into as many as seven different services, which would severely limit the channel capacity available to Classic Sports and other independent sports programming services. "Anything that stifles competition is of great concern to us," said Mr. Bedol. "Cablevision's acquisition of MSG would exacerbate an already dangerous situation by increasing Cablevision's leverage to the point where it would have the means and opportunity to take unfair advantage of both programmers and consumers." In filing its FCC complaint against Cablevision, Classic Sports Network is the first company to bring a claim under Section 12 of the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992, which added a new Section 616 to the Federal Communications Act The establishment of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1934, the regulatory body for interstate and foreign telecommunications. Its mission is to provide high-quality services at reasonable cost to everyone in the U.S. on a nondiscriminatory basis. of 1934. According to the 1993 FCC release in which the applicable regulations were implemented, Section 616 "is intended to prevent cable systems and other multichannel video programming distributors from taking undue advantage of programming vendors through various practices, including coercing vendors to grant ownership interests or exclusive distribution rights to multichannel Using two or more paths for transmission or processing. It can refer to a variety of architectures including (1) multiple I/O channels between the CPU and peripheral devices, (2) multiple wires in a cable, (3) multiple "logical" channels within a single wire or fiber or (4) multiple distributors in exchange for carriage on their systems." Stephen D. Greenberg, president of Classic Sports Network, refuted Cablevision's public assertions that demanding equity as the price of carriage is "commonplace in the cable industry." "On the contrary," said Mr. Greenberg, "Cablevision's pattern of coercive behavior stands in stark contrast to the business practices of the rest of the cable industry with which we have a great relationship, including those MSOs (Multiple System Operators) who have substantial ownership interests in other programming services." Classic Sports Network is currently available through Tele-Communications, Inc., Time Warner, Continental Cablevision, Comcast, Cox, Century Communications, Charter Communications, Prime Cable, Marcus, Falcon Cable, Post- Newsweek, TCA TCA 1. trichloroacetic acid. 2. tricarboxylic acid cycle (Krebs cycle). TCA Tricyclic antidepressant, see there , Multimedia, Rifkin, DirecTV, Primestar and other multichannel programming distributors. Classic Sports Network further charges that Cablevision's violations of the Cable Act were committed at the highest levels of the company. "The bullying of Classic Sports Network by Cablevision has not been undertaken by overzealous low-level employees. Rather it has been instituted by Cablevision's senior management, and that is what makes it all the more egregious," said Mr. Greenberg. "Classic Sports Network is not owned by any MSOs or any of the several large cable programmers," he added. "We are independently funded and rely on the level playing field See net neutrality. specifically mandated by federal law. If independent, entrepreneurial ventures like Classic Sports Network are to have any chance of succeeding in this world of media giants, companies like Cablevision must understand their responsibility to abide by To stand to; to adhere; to maintain. See also: Abide the standards of good business -- and law -- that have been established for the cable industry." According to FCC procedures, prior to filing a program carriage complaint under section 616, an aggrieved programming vendor must first inform the multichannel distributor of its belief that a violation of Section 616 has occurred. Classic Sports Network satisfied this requirement on February 28 in a six-page letter to Cablevision President James L. Dolan. FCC policy further specifies that the programming vendor must then provide the defendant a minimum of 10 days to respond to the notice before filing a complaint with the FCC. According to FCC guidelines, available remedies and sanctions for program carriage violations include forfeitures, mandatory carriage, or carriage on terms revised or specified by the FCC. Classic Sports Network is a 24-hour, all-sports network devoted to the greatest sports events and personalities -- past and present -- as captured on video and film. The network, launched on May 6, 1995, features original programming, rare and exclusive sports films, interviews, series, movies and documentaries. Classic Sports Network has access to thousands of hours of classic sports programming from the vaults The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. Please help [ improve the introduction] to meet Wikipedia's layout standards. You can discuss the issue on the talk page. of the National Football League, National Basketball Association National Basketball Association (NBA) U.S. professional basketball league. It was formed in 1949 by the merger of two rival organizations, the National Basketball League (founded 1937) and the Basketball Association of America (1946). , National Hockey League National Hockey League (NHL) Organization of professional North American ice-hockey teams. The league was formed in 1917 by five Canadian teams; the first U.S. team, the Boston Bruins, was added in 1924. It today consists of 30 teams in two conferences and six divisions. and Major League Baseball "MLB" and "Major Leagues" redirect here. For other uses, see MLB (disambiguation) and Major Leagues (disambiguation). Major League Baseball (MLB) is the highest level of play in North American professional baseball. , as well as the Olympics, golf, horse racing, tennis, and a library of more than 18,000 boxing films. CONTACT: Bryan Harris Alan Taylor Communications 212-714-1280 |
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