Disney Fights The FCC Over Cable Rules
(News | Source: Multichannel News)
The Walt Disney Company is fighting the Federal Communications Commission over the attempt to impose ‘wholesale’ a la carte rules on the cable industry. Disney says that the FCC can’t pass these rulings because the U.S. Congress has not given them the authorization to intervene in the program-distribution market. The rules could force cable programmers to sell their networks one at a time to cable and satellite TV distributors. The ruling would allow distributors to only pick up channels like ESPNEWS or ESPN2 without ESPN. Disney has indicated that these channels should not be available on a standalone basis since they are complementary to ESPN.
“In order to adopt a regulation, an agency must have express statutory authority from Congress or properly exercise its ancillary jurisdiction. In this case, no part of the Communications Act … authorizes the FCC to interfere with the substance of carriage negotiations,” Disney spokes person said.
