Comcast Defends Most Favored Nation Clauses in FCC Video Access Inquiry

Comcast is telling the Federal Communications Commission that independent and diverse content producers have a wealth of distribution options, including Comcast and NBCU outlets, and that contract provisions including most favored nation clauses (MFNs) and alternative distribution methods (ADMs) are pro-competitive or at worst "benign." It also says that complaints about program bundling, minimum penetration and PEG channel access are meritless. That came in its response to the FCC's Notice of Inquiry into access by independent programmers to distribution platforms, both traditional and over-the-top.

In launching the inquiry in Feb, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn signaled that a number of access issues needed a hard look, including contractual terms on pricing and online access. Comcast countered in its filing that there is neither a compelling policy reason nor plausible legal authority for the FCC to get more involved than it is in carriage negotiations, and said the NOI "strains to see a glass half-empty, when in fact the glass is overflowing." Comcast said that in the current, "ultracompetitive marketplace," there is no reason for the FCC to raise extraneous issues like MFNs and PEG programming and deem them market obstacles that need investigating.