When Comcast acquired NBCUniversal, among the things it received was financial news cable network CNBC, which is in direct competition with Bloomberg TV. Bloomberg claims that its service is being discriminated against and has taken its case to the FCC, which is adding some time to the process.
Bloomberg says that the merger of Comcast and NBCU is conditioned on Bloomberg being fairly situated on Comcast channel lineup cards, in the same “neighborhood” as CNBC and other news channels. Comcast has FCC permission to take a little more time in responding to Bloomberg’s complaint.
Comcast said it needed more time “to review the data and analyses Bloomberg provided, gather relevant facts, and prepare its Answer, thereby providing a more complete record.”
The extension is not in dispute, as it turns out. Comcast noted that counsel for Bloomberg agreed to allow the extension.
FCC concluded, “We find that there is good cause for a limited extension of time to file an answer. Bloomberg’s complaint is extensive, and we believe that extending the answer deadline to July 27, 2011 is appropriate to allow Comcast sufficient time to review and answer the complaint, and provide the Media Bureau with a more extensive record, which may lead to a more expeditious resolution of the dispute.”
