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A la carte cable ruling faces appeal

The Capital Times  —  7/17/2008 10:27 am

Attorneys for programming providers and distributors will appeal a recent U.S. District Court decision that will let consumers challenge, on antitrust grounds, the practice of selling video programming in bundles rather than on a channel-by-channel, or "a la carte," basis, Multichannel.com reported Thursday.

The December 2007 lawsuit was filed on behalf of consumers in four states and is aimed to be a class action on behalf of all cable and satellite subscribers. The suit alleges that consumers overpay for entertainment programming because the programmers and distributors "conspire" to sell programming in bundles, forcing consumers to pay for channels they don't want.

Attorneys for companies including NBC Universal, Viacom, the Walt Disney Co., Fox Entertainment Group, Time Warner, Comcast, Coxcom, DirecTV, DISH Network, Charter Communications and Cablevision Systems had asked Judge Christina Snyder to dismiss the suit.

But Snyder ruled on July 7 in Los Angeles that there were issues raised in the suit that should be argued at trial and not handled in a motion to dismiss.

In their appeal to the judge, attorneys for the program suppliers contend that legal precedent suggests the judge require the plaintiffs to provide "evidentiary facts," not just "ultimate allegations" that competitors are kept out of the market. The filing suggests some levels of burdens of proof.

The companies, in their appeal, assert that legal precedents preclude defining distributors as "co-conspirators."

The Capital Times  —  7/17/2008 10:27 am