Comcast treated Tennis Channel unfairly, FCC judge rules

A Federal Communications Commission administrative judge ruled that cable giant Comcast discriminated against the small, independently owned Tennis Channel by putting it at a competitive disadvantage.

The ruling marked the first time that an FCC judge has found that a cable operator violated the program carriage anti-discrimination rules, which were established in 1993. Richard L. Sippel, the FCC's chief administrative law judge, ruled that Comcast, the nation's largest cable TV operator, treated the Santa Monica-based Tennis Channel unfairly by positioning it in a more expensive package of cable channels with fewer subscribers. At the same time, the judge said, Comcast favored two of its own TV sports networks — the Golf Channel and Versus — by offering them as part of the basic programming package, received by nearly all of Comcast's 22 million video subscribers. That provided the Comcast-owned channels with more viewers, which helped lure advertising dollars.