Media Bureau Rejects The World Network's Comcast Carriage Complaint

The nondiscrimination condition put on the Comcast/NBCUniversal deal, like FCC program carriage rules, requires a video programming vendor make a prima facie case of unlawful Comcast behavior, the Media Bureau said in an order in docket 17-166 Friday, rejecting a The Word Network (TWN) program carriage complaint. Many thought TWN's complaint faced long odds (see 1706090031). TWN argued the merger approval conditions obviated it from having to make a prima facie case of discrimination. The bureau said TWN didn't make the case of Comcast discrimination via reduced TWN distribution or by demands for exclusive digital programming rights since it didn't show Comcast acted due to TWN not being affiliated with the MVPD. It said TWN arguments that compare its network with Impact, another independent network, don't work as circumstantial evidence of discrimination, and arguments pointing to Comcast-affiliated networks like Syfy fall short since those networks aren't similarly situated in content to TWN. The bureau also said grant of exclusive digital rights wouldn't create a Comcast/TWN affiliation for purposes of the nondiscrimination condition. TWN outside counsel didn't comment.