Supreme Court Won't Hear A La Carte Class Action Suit

The Supreme Court, in a one-line rejection
Monday, declined to hear the appeal of a class action suit filed by cable and
satellite subs, who had argued that channel bundling violated antitrust laws,
and had asked the courts to compel programmers and distributors to offer single
channels for purchase.

Back in March, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the suit, BRANTLEY, ROB, ET AL. V. NBCUNIVERSAL, ET
AL
, saying the plaintiffs had
not stated a plausible claim. They sought Supreme court review of that
decision, which Monday was denied.

The "et al," on the NBCUniversal side included Comcast,
Time Warner Cable, Disney, DirecTV, Dish, Fox, Cox and Cablevison.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.