Time for FCC to play ball
By Luke Decock
For the past three years, it has been easy to blame Time Warner Cable for the absence of this area's duly designated baseball coverage on cable TV.
The dispute between MASN, the network that carries the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals, and the cable giant has dragged on through arbitrators and government agencies long enough to buy a few dozen lawyers a few dozen new yachts. Every decision MASN won, Time Warner would appeal. Litigation spawned litigation.
As this latest baseball season without baseball on basic cable approaches, Time Warner hasn't done a thing to slow the process down lately. As trendy as it is these days, blame the government.
The most recent ruling against Time Warner, by the Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau, was handed down in October 2008. Time Warner promptly appealed to the full FCC. And then?
Nothing. The FCC has been deliberating ever since.
The delay has even spawned a conspicuous show of bipartisanship among North Carolina legislators, with Sens. Richard Burr and Kay Hagan joining four Congressmen from both parties in signing a letter Monday asking FCC chairman Julius Genachowski to expedite the process.
Some of the delay is out of the FCC's hands, as a few new members were appointed by President Obama, stalling the FCC during the confirmation process. But the FCC has been handing down rulings in earnest since August, and there's still no movement on the MASN-Time Warner dispute.
There are currently 60 items awaiting action by the full FCC. Only 16 have been around longer than this one.
In a letter to concerned local members of Congress - including Reps. Howard Coble, Walter Jones and Mike McIntyre, two Republicans and a Democrat - dated Jan. 19, Genachowski indicated that the issue had been circulating among the full commission for more than a year.
"I recognize the need to resolve this matter in the interests of the parties, as well as consumers in North Carolina who subscribe to Time Warner service," Genachowski wrote. "Please be assured that the Commission intends to act as quickly as possible to review the issues discussed in the Application."
But if it's taken more than a year to get this far, who knows what "as quickly as possible" means on the FCC calendar?
That was more than two months ago. Opening day for the Orioles is Tuesday. And still nothing, except another season dawning without baseball on basic cable.
For those not fully aware of the depth of the dispute, and unsure why the federal government is involved in the first place, it has been percolating since MASN, the start-up sports network owned by the Orioles and Nationals, took over the rights to Orioles games in 2007 from Fox Sports Net South, which had carried them in this market for years, first as Home Team Sports and then as FSN South.
This being an Orioles/Nationals market as far as Major League Baseball is concerned, those games have been blacked out ever since on Time Warner Cable, even on the expensive MLB Extra Innings package.
The crux of the issue is this: MASN wants a channel slot on basic cable, like FSN South (now FS Carolinas). Time Warner wants to put MASN on a digital tier where it can charge extra for it, arguing that it's not local programming.
Negotiations started in 2005 and they have been stalled ever since, but the FCC has the final word. Unfortunately, there's no telling when that word will be delivered.
