Comcast/NBCU: ACA Says Baseball-Style Arbitration Condition Is No Help

Amid talk at the Federal Communications Commission that Chairman Julius Genachowski could be circulating the Comcast/NBCU decision -- approval with conditions -- to the other commissioners as early as Dec 22, the American Cable Association was pushing against what it understands to be one of the conditions -- baseball-style arbitration -- that the cable group says does not help its members.

In an ex parte filing on a Dec 20 meeting with John Flynn, senior counsel to the chairman for transactions, ACA executives said they understood the FCC was proposing requiring outside arbitration on programming disputes, but one that would not make it a "usable remedy" for smaller operators. ACA said its understanding was that Comcast-NBCU would be required by the FCC to reimburse smaller MVPDs for arbitration fees if Comcast lost, but not if it won. In any event, ACA has argued that baseball-style arbitration does not help its members, who are smaller and mid-sized operators without the deep pockets of the larger players.