beIN SPORTS (beIN) has announced it is moving forward with additional legal action against Comcast through the media bureau of the Federal Communications Commission due to Comcast’s “unwillingness to negotiate concerning the restoration of beIN to the Comcast platform.”
beIN SPORTS, which offers access to premium soccer, tennis and motorsports content, was removed from Comcast/Xfinity platforms on July 31st, 2018.
“We are extremely disappointed that after over a year spent attempting good-faith negotiations with Comcast, they have ignored customer demand, refused to negotiate and continued their practice of discriminating against beIN and other independent networks in favor of their own affiliated networks,” said Antonio Briceño, beIN SPORTS’ Deputy Managing Director for the U.S. and Canada. “While we remain hopeful and willing to come to an agreement, we are steadfast in our desire to reinstate beIN SPORTS at the same levels of distribution as Comcast’s own sports networks with which beIN SPORTS simply seeks to compete on a fair basis.
“As the last few months have revealed, the vast majority of our carrier partners have operated in good faith working with us to find mutually beneficial terms for all parties involved. In fact, Comcast is only one of two partners with whom we have yet to reach an agreement, and the only carrier partner who has showed no interest in coming to an agreement, effectively leaving millions of subscribers without access to the sports programming they want and demand such as LaLiga, Copa Libertadores and CAF Africa Cup of Nations which takes place this summer.”
The new FCC filing is in addition to the ongoing FCC Complaint filed by beIN SPORTS against Comcast on December 13, 2018.
