Comcast Forced Removal of Estrella TV, Says LBI
Comcast refused to engage in “good faith negotiation” to expand carriage of Liberman Broadcasting's (LBI) Spanish-language TV network Estrella TV, said LBI in an ex parte notice posted in docket 14-57 Friday. LBI officials met with the FCC Media Bureau…
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March 2 about how decisions made by Comcast forced the removal of Estrella TV from Comcast cable systems in several markets, LBI said. Comcast’s actions failed to serve the public interest and goals of fostering competition, diversity and localism, LBI said. It said Comcast's planned buy of Time Warner Cable is approved, Comcast will control access to 19 of the top 20 Hispanic markets. LBI said Comcast asserted that Estrella TV's ratings lag behind other networks, so this precludes distribution parity for the network on Comcast, but Estrella received high ratings from Nielsen, LBI said. Comcast has treated other Hispanic networks favorably while it refused to expand carriage of or pay license fees to Estrella TV, LBI said. “This is the first time a programmer has pulled its signal from our customers," Comcast said in a statement emailed Friday. Comcast is "very disappointed" that LBI is taking away its Estrella stations from Comcast customers in Houston, Denver and Salt Lake City, it said: "Liberman’s precipitous action is particularly puzzling given that we are Estrella’s largest distributor and have been negotiating in good faith to reach a fair arrangement with Liberman." Eighty percent of Comcast’s customers will continue to receive Estrella in Chicago; Fresno, California; Miami; and New York, it said. "We want to continue to carry the Estrella stations for our customers in these three markets and offered to do so under our existing arrangements with Liberman, which are the same arrangements we have with other, comparable stations. Unfortunately, Liberman is insisting that we go far beyond the market and that our customers pay millions of dollars for Estrella programming, which is not widely viewed among Latino audiences, and also is insisting on significant additional distribution throughout our footprint." As the top U.S. cable provider of Spanish-language network packages, Comcast's Hispanic customers "will continue to have many viewing choices,” it said.