The FCC plans to vote at its November meeting on a report and order (R&O) to speed up the program access, program carriage, and retransmission consent complaints.

There is currently a one-year statute of limitations, but it allows for a programming vendor to file a program carriage complaint against an MVPD at any time, including years later, with the one-year statute of limitations triggered when the vendor notifies the MVPD.

But FCC chairman Ajit Pai, in announcing the R&O vote, said that "undermines the fundamental purpose of a statute of limitations, which is to ensure the timely filing of complaints."

Pai said the R&O would clarify that the one-year limit is triggered "when an MVPD rejects or fails to acknowledge a request for program carriage or request to negotiate for program carriage."

It would also modify the effective dates for carriage decisions by its Administrative Law Judge to square with other ALJ decisions. It would also align rules for resolving complaints against program carriage, program access, retransmission consent, and open video systems (OVS).

"These changes would help to ensure an expeditious complaint process," said Pai.

The FCC has denied AMC Networks' (AMCN) request that it keep its networks on AT&T pending the resolution of the programmer's carriage complaint against the distributor.

The FCC's Media Bureau said AMCN had failed to show its interim relief was warranted, but added that denying the stay should not be read as providing any indication of how the FCC would rule on the underlying carriage complaint, though it did urge them to resolve the carriage dispute themselves if possible. 

"[W]e recognize the potential impact of this dispute on some of AMCN’s viewers and encourage the parties to work toward a mutually agreeable solution pending the outcome of the complaint proceeding," the FCC's Media Bureau said in a statement.

Related: AMC Files Carriage Complaint

“We are pleased the FCC correctly denied AMC Networks’ petition for a standstill order," said AT&T in a statement. "We treat all programmers fairly and AMC Networks’ petition and complaint are without merit. We remain willing to work with AMC Networks to provide its content at a reasonable price for our customers.”

Earlier this month AMCN filed the complaint alleging AT&T discriminated against it on the basis of affiliation. But it also filed a petition asking the FCC to order a temporary standstill of the current agreement before it expired.

But the FCC said that AMCN had not shown that it would suffer irreparable harm absent the standstill and, primarily for that reason, it was denying the petition. 

The bureau even cracked wise in making its point.

"Unfortunately for AMCN, its irreparable harm argument was breaking bad [a reference to the iconic AMC series] at the outset because AMCN misconstrued the relevant inquiry," the bureau said. "Should we deny AMCN’s request for temporary injunctive relief, the alternative under the status quo would be a temporary service disruption pending resolution of AMCN’s Complaint. To be sure, AMCN could decide instead to accept AT&T’s latest carriage offer. But taking such a step would be AMCN’s choice entirely, and we fail to see how AMCN can base its case for injunctive relief on harms that would flow solely from its own decision to accept AT&T’s offer, harms that it can avoid by not agreeing to that offer."

The bureau said it was not convinced of the urgency of the relief or the immediacy of the alleged harms. 

"AMCN’s assertions regarding the popularity of its programming and its broad carriage by MVPDs nationwide suggest that a temporary period of non-carriage on AT&T’s video systems during the pendency of this proceeding is unlikely to significantly and adversely affect its competitive position in the marketplace," the bureau said.

Liberman Broadcasting, parent of Spanish-language network Estrella TV, is filing a program-carriage complaint against Comcast at the Federal Communications Commission, saying the cable operator violated not only the commission's rules but NBCU merger conditions--Comcast can't discriminate in favor of its own content.

Liberman says Comcast is discriminating against Estrella TV to favor its own Telemundo and NBC Universo networks and "unlawfully" demanding that Estrella give up digital rights.

"We hope the FCC will move swiftly to put a stop to Comcast’s egregious behavior not only for the good of our network, but also to send a message to all independent programmers that they need not endure unlawful abuse at the hands of Comcast," Liberman president Lenard Liberman said.

 Estrella pointed to the failure to come to a retransmission deal with Comcast for three TV stations, in Denver, Houston and Salt Lake City, and the “collapse” of ratings following those stations going off Comcast systems. 

The contentious carriage impasse dates from last year, when KETD Denver, KZIZ Houston and KPNZ Salt Lake City were pulled, or dropped, depending no which side was talking (though, technically, only the broadcaster can keep a signal on after the contract has ended).

 Liberman was trying to upgrade from must-carry status to retransmission consent, electing to try to negotiate license fees for the stations. The other side of that election is that if a deal is not reached, Comcast does not have to carry them.

Comcast, which offers five dozen Hispanic networks, noted at the time that, even with the station exits, it was still Estrella's largest distributor and said it had been negotiating in good faith.

Comcast had a lot to say in response:

"Liberman Broadcasting has no case based on the law or the facts.  First, as a threshold matter, the program carriage rules simply do not cover broadcasters like Liberman. They do not apply to broadcast networks. Second, Comcast did not drop Estrella TV; Liberman pulled the broadcast stations in three markets, and Comcast continues to carry Estrella TV to about six million subscribers across the country,” the company said in a statement.

This purported carriage complaint is just the latest attempt by Liberman to extract carriage and fees from Comcast that are in no way justified based on the weak performance of Estrella TV...Comcast negotiated in good faith for months before Liberman pulled the Estrella TV signals in the three markets. In fact, we offered to continue to carry the stations under the existing arrangements, which are the same terms we have with other, comparable stations.  

“Our decision not to pay the exorbitant price demanded by Liberman was a reasonable business judgment in the interest of our customers – and one that has been confirmed over the past year given the absence of any demand for Estrella TV in these markets.

“We do not believe Comcast’s customers should have to pay any fees for Estrella TV, given its very limited appeal. Contrary to Liberman Broadcasting’s assertions, Estrella TV is not widely viewed among Latino audiences -- a fact consistently demonstrated by a wide range of ratings data in the three stations’ local markets, as well as in other Comcast markets that currently carry Estrella TV. Estrella TV’s weak performance in each market where Comcast distributes it today does not justify Liberman’s demand for even broader distribution.

“We are proud to be the nation’s largest cable provider of Spanish language network packages, with a distribution platform that delivers more than 60 Hispanic cable networks on the majority of Comcast Cable systems.” 

Public Knowledge, a big critic of big cable companies, said it thought Liberman had a case and that the FCC should "examine Lieberman's specific claims carefully."

"Liberman Broadcasting's program carriage complaint against Comcast is the latest to document the abuses of a large cable company," said John Bergmayer, senior Staff attorney. "Liberman has presented a strong case that Comcast has discriminated against its Estrella TV network in favor of Comcast's own Telemundo and NBC Universo and is violating the terms of the FCC’s conditions for accepting the Comcast/NBCU merger. The complaint raises legitimate concerns that Comcast favored its own affiliated programming over Estrella and demanded that Lieberman turn over digital rights, and used proprietary data about viewers gathered from its locked-down set-top boxes to make claims about Estrella's audience."

Liberman's complaint comes as the FCC has put a spotlight on diverse programming access to distribution platforms, including any contractual impediments, and Comcast is currently under attack from Byron Allen's Entertainment Studios, which is also complaining to the FCC about Comcast citing lack of carriage -- of Allen's diverse content -- and also claiming that violates the NBCU deal conditions.