Comcast SportsNet provides a product that is highly desired, with the rights to televise the Phillies, 76ers and Flyers. Yet for years, satellite-TV providers have been crying foul, saying that the Philadelphia regional sports network has not been playing fair with its product.

If viewers want to see SportsNet programming, they have to subscribe to Comcast cable.

During the baseball season, the complaints about this relationship seem to multiply. That's because, when the 101 games on Comcast and the eight on CN8 are shown, they aren't on satellite.

Many e-mailers are confused because other Comcast SportsNet regional networks - in Baltimore/Washington, Chicago and Sacramento, Calif. - are offered on satellite.

So the question is, how can Philadelphia stay off the satellite while the other Comcast properties are on it?

The answer has to do with delivery - as in how the signal is delivered. The Cable Access Rules, which were enacted in 1992, state that if a signal is beamed by satellite to other providers, then it has to be made available to all providers.

The satellite companies still must pay the cable company for their programming, but it has to be made available.

Comcast SportsNet in Philadelphia, which debuted in 1997, has its signal delivered mostly by fiber optics.

That means it doesn't have to offer its signal to anybody. And that has the satellite companies seeing red.

"Congress never expected companies like Comcast to turn the statute on its face and use it to deny competitors local sports," said Susan Eid, vice president of government affairs for DirecTV.

Comcast SportsNet in Philadelphia has been accused of taking advantage of a loophole in the Cable Access Rules. Others call it smart business, but those others don't include satellite companies.

"This practice runs counter to the spirit of the program access rules, which were intended to provide all distributors with equal access to cable-affiliated programming," said Mark Cicero, corporate communications manager for Dish Network.

The rules were originally made to ensure competition between certain monopoly cable operators and others who offer video programming. The FCC ruled that it would be difficult for a satellite-television operator to successfully compete if it could not offer certain channels. The law was enacted to force cable operators that own programming to sell it to others under certain conditions. One of those conditions is based on the delivery of the signal.

Eid and Cicero both say that Comcast has unfair exclusivity.

Comcast points out that DirecTV, with a customer base of 15 million, is the only provider that offers all NFL games on its Sunday NFL Ticket package. If a person wants to get these games, the only place is DirecTV.

"The single most valuable and exclusive sports package today is the NFL Sunday Ticket, and it is not available on cable," said Tim Fitzpatrick, director of corporate communications for Comcast. "Comcast's content, in contrast, is widely available to competitors at nondiscriminatory prices and terms."

To that Eid says hogwash.

"In Philadelphia, the problem is that if you don't subscribe to Comcast, you don't get that programming at all," she said. "The NFL Sunday Ticket brings out-of-town teams to your home, but nothing prevents you from watching your local team. It's comparing apples and oranges."

Fitzpatrick says the satellite penetration in Philadelphia is about 12 percent. Eid says it's closer to 10.3 percent. Either way, she adds that if DirecTV were able to offer SportsNet, it would double its customer base in the Philadelphia area.

And that brings the final question.

If Comcast SportsNet is abiding by the rules, why in the world would it want to have the chance to make less money by delivering its signal to a satellite company?

When asked whether Philadelphia's Comcast SportsNet would ever negotiate with the satellite companies, Fitzpatrick said: "We wouldn't negotiate in the press."



And it likely won't negotiate with the satellite companies unless the laws change.


http://www.kentucky.com/mld/inquirer...nquirer_sports