CBS, Fox, Et Al. Slam FCC's 'Un' Decision on Merger Docs

Content companies Wednesday told a D.C. court that it definitely needs to block the FCC's decision to make thousands of programming contract documents in the Comcast/Time Warner Cable and AT&T/DirecTV merger reviews available to hundreds of third parties.

Companies seeking the stay are CBS, Scripps, Disney, Time Warner, Twenty-First Century Fox, Univision and Viacom, joined by the National Association of Broadcasters in support. On the other side is the FCC, joined by AT&T, Comcast, Charter, DirecTV, Dish and Time Warner Cable, which all oppose the stay.

CBS et al said they are likely to win on the underlying merits of their challenge of the FCC decision and the protective orders the FCC asserted protected that sensitive information and allowed it to be shared. They also call the sharing of not only contract info but work product including emails and memos "Unprecedented, Unnecessary, and Unexplained."

For the full story go to Multichannel.com.

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.