On
July 25, 2012, Free State Foundation President Randolph May issued the
following statement concerning the FCC's ruling that Comcast
discriminated against the Tennis Channel with respect to its channel placement
on Comcast's cable systems:
"The
FCC's action finding that Comcast discriminated against the Tennis Channel is
just one more example of the agency's failure to conform to rule of law norms
as it continues to engage in regulatory overreach. In this case, the FCC finds
'discrimination' even though Comcast carried the Tennis Channel when many other
multiple channel programing distributors chose not to carry the channel at all.
And Comcast distributed the Tennis Channel consistent with the way most other
major MVPDs distributed it when they did choose to carry it.
The
FCC's decision uses the cover of the malleable 'discrimination' standard to
reach an arbitrary decision that, in its unpredictability, appears capricious.
And, it does this in the context of a competitive video marketplace in which
such micro-management of an MVPDs' programming decisions cannot be justified
consistent with the First Amendment's protection of the free speech rights of
the MVPD. By acting arbitrarily and capriciously in applying the
'discrimination' standard and by violating the First Amendment, the agency's
regulatory double fault is no laughing matter. Rather, it is another example of
the FCC's flouting rule of law norms in its decision-making."
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