Has to do with the 1992 Cable Act requiring fair treatment of “similarly situated” networks - or something to that effect.
Comcast has Tennis Channel on Sports Tier while Golf and NBCSN are on the basic cable package (digital starter).
FCC is charged with handling cable carriage complaints and fined Comcast the maximum penalty of $375,000 and required Comcast to provide Tennis Channel with same distribution as NBCSN and Golf Channel.
DC Circuit overturned it. This is the first cable carriage complaint to be appealed all the way up to the Supreme Court as I understand.
The discrimination issue is based on ownership of some cable networks by certain cable providers. Comcast owns NBCSN and Golf but not Tennis Channel.
Thank you, I assumed as much. I wonder how "similarly situated" networks is defined. If one sports network has only a fraction of the audience as another I would hardly call them similarly situated. In other words, economic concerns should be a legitimate basis for network placement and "discrimination".