Bloomberg accuses Comcast of news channel neighborhood redlining

Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) is effectively redlining Bloomberg TV by not putting it in the same neighborhood with other news networks, particularly Comcast's own CNBC, the channel's parent company said in a letter to Comcast that was copied to the FCC. The company, which was a staunch opponent of the Comcast-NBCUniversal merger, complained that refusing to move the channel to the news neighborhood violates a regulatory condition for Comcast's purchase of NBCUniversal.

"This is something of a test case of how serious Comcast is about implementing the conditions set by the FCC order," Bloomberg's top government affairs exec Greg Babyak told Politico.

Comcast spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice was back on the job defending the MSO. First of all, she said, Comcast "does not neighborhood news channels in the way Bloomberg seeks to be positioned." And second of all, since it hasn't repositioned any channels to favor its newly acquired CNBC channel, "Bloomberg is not entitled to any relief pursuant to its threatened complaint."

For more:
- Politico has this story

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