Comcast Accused Of Demanding $3.5 Million “punitive Ransom” From Rival
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica
- 2 years ago
- A cable company that competes against Comcast says it was forced “to pay a punitive ransom totaling nearly $3.5 million” in order to keep airing Comcast-owned TV programming.
- Wave Broadband, which has about 455,000 customers in Washington, Oregon, and California, filed a complaint against Comcast-owned networks with the Federal Communications Commission in December.
- Demands from Comcast-owned Regional Sports Networks (RSNs) “had the effect of withholding must-have regional sports programming from the largest cable competitor to Comcast Cable on the West Coast unless Wave agreed to pay a punitive ransom totaling nearly $3.5 million,” Wave wrote yesterday.
- “The Comcast RSNs do not deny their conduct and barely attempt to defend it; instead they primarily rely on procedural defenses,” Wave wrote.
