May 8 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Friday threw out a federal agency's order that media companies should disclose their programming contracts with pay-TV providers as part of regulators' review of pending cable and telecom mergers.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled against the Federal Communications Commission, which last year asked various U.S. media companies to disclose their contracts with pay-TV providers to help with the reviews of Comcast Corp's now-withdrawn proposed merger with
Time Warner Cable Inc and AT&T Inc's proposed acquisition of DirecTV.
Writing on behalf of the three-judge panel, Judge David Tatel said the order was "substantially and procedurally flawed." The court found that the FCC has failed to show that information in question was a key element of the review process.
The media companies, including CBS Corp, Walt Disney Co and Twenty-First Century Fox Inc, that challenged the request had said in court papers that the FCC's order would cause "irreparable harm."
The court in November stayed the FCC's disclosure order, but said the merger proceedings and the FCC review could continue as the regulator already had access to all the materials. The court matter largely influenced the ability of third parties and the public to consider the documents and weigh in.
Comcast dropped its plans to buy its biggest cable rival on April 24 after U.S. regulators signaled strong reservations about the merger that could not be remedied by conditions.
The case is CBS Corp et al vs FCC et al, U.S. Court of Appeals for District of Columbia Circuit, No. 14-1242. (Reporting by Lawrence Hurley. Additional reporting by Alina Selyukh; Editing by
Bill Trott and
Susan Heavey)
