News
Small and medium-size cable and phone companies have banded to object to relieving News Corp. of the conditions imposed on it when it negotiated its merger with DirecTV.
When News Corp. first bought into DirecTV, it agreed to abide by several conditions designed to protect the carriage rights of other service providers.
Those conditions won’t elapse for another 15 months, but News Corp. no longer holds a stake in DirecTV, so it believes it should be released from those 
agreements, and it has petitioned the FCC to negate them.
News Corp. argues that the conditions will put it at a competitive disadvantage, as its Fox unit will be entering an 18-month period during which it will have to negotiate new retransmission agreements with service providers.
The American Cable Association (ACA), the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association (NTCA), and the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies (OPASTCO) published a letter to the FCC opposing the News Corp. request, observing that not only has News Corp. failed to demonstrate that the conditions put it at a competitive disadvantage, but that the removal of those conditions will give the company a competitive advantage.
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