FCC Sets Its Sights On Fiber Exemption

Apparently, the Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau has circulated an order that would narrow the so-called terrestrial loophole by applying the 1992 Cable Act's prohibition on unfair or deceptive practices. The Cable Act requires pay TV distributors to make "satellite cable programming," such as networks, in which they hold a financial interest available to their competitors on a nondiscriminatory basis (section 628c for those keeping track). But current FCC rules allow providers to withhold such programming from competitors in instances where it isn't distributed via satellite. According to the sources, the order does not add "and terrestrial" to the exclusivity prohibition. Instead, it says the ban in that section can be extended to terrestrially delivered programming if a case can be made that an exclusive contract violates the rule against "unfair methods of competition or unfair or deceptive acts or practices." (Section 628b, for those still keeping score.)