Bloomberg Files Complaint Against Comcast With FCC

As promised, Bloomberg has officially asked the Federal Communications Commission to require Comcast to move Bloomberg Television into "existing news neighborhoods" on its systems, saying that not to do so violates a condition in the FCC's order approving the NBCU deal.

In a complaint filed at the FCC, Bloomberg said that Comcast's assertion that it does not have such neighborhoods and that any "neighborhooding" requirement applies to any future such possible news is off base. "[T]he evidence clearly indicates that Comcast right now extensivley groups news channels [like Fox News channel, MSNBC, and CNN] into new neighborhoods. Moreover, the FCC order expressly states that the news neighborhooding condition applies to news neighborhoods that Comcast carries "NOW or in the future,"thus meaning that it applies to any news neighborhood that Comcast carried as of the date of the FCC order (Jan. 18). Bloomberg wants the FCC to make Comcast move Bloomberg TV into "exisiting news neighborhoods" as defined by Bloomberg, within 60 days in the top 35 DMA's in the country.