Bloomberg to FCC: Comcast Can -- and Should -- Move Its TV Channels

Bloomberg made its last pitch to the Federal Communications Commission that Comcast is violating the "news neighborhooding" condition of the NBCU deal order.

After Comcast declined to move Bloomberg's TV channel into news groupings/neighborhoods following the implementation of that order, Bloomberg cried foul. In its answer to Comcast's response to Bloomberg's program carriage complaint, Bloomberg says that its case hinges on two points: 1) whether the condition applies to news groupings being carried by Comcast on the date the FCC approved the deal and are still being carried, and 2) whether those groupings qualify as "neighborhoods" under that condition. Bloomberg's answer is yes to both, saying it gets that from the plain language of the order. Comcast has countered that the FCC language applies to future neighborhooding, and not to current groupings of only a few channels, which aren't what the FCC meant by neighborhoods. Bloomberg argues that Comcast has made some 10,000 channel switches in the past 11 months, undercutting its argument that the condition, if read as Bloomberg reads it, would be a burden for the company that the FCC did not intend to impose.