Founded in 2003, Tennis Channel Inc. provides 24-hour programming that’s all about the sport, from live matches and instructional videos to features on the greats of the game.
Comcast Cable Communications LLC, the country’s largest provider of cable television, apparently isn’t a big fan of the channel restricting its distribution to a sports and entertainment package that requires subscribers to pay an extra monthly fee. Lawyers for Comcast say the company’s lack of interest in broader distribution stems from an objective cost-benefit analysis: Subscribers just haven’t shown a lot of enthusiasm. But that’s not what the Federal Communications Commission determined, and now the sides are taking the dispute to a federal appeals court in Washington in a test of federal power to intrude on editorial discretion.
