Satellite and telcoTV providers have long been annoyed with the fact that some cable companies withhold access to cable-company owned regional sports channels. In New York, Cablevision withholds access to the channel from competitors like U-Verse, Dish and FiOSTV in order to prevent sports fans from migrating. In Philadelphia, Comcast does the same thing with their SportsNet Philadephia channel, and by proxy, Philly has some of the lowest satellite TV subscription rates in the nation. It's an anti-competitive tactic to everybody but the channel owners.

Under Federal law, cable companies are required to lease channels they own to competitors at "reasonable" rates. But sloppy wording in the law was long manipulated by cable industry lawyers to exempt channels delivered via terrestrial ground lines and not satellite feeds. Last year, AT&T and Verizon lobbyists really began pushing the FCC to put an end to it, even going so far as to use your complaints in our forums as ammunition in filings.

Last January the FCC issued an order (pdf) designed to put an end to such practices among cable carriers by finally closing the "terrestrial loophole" with an FCC vote of 4-1. To be clear, the ruling only essentially created a process by which case-by-case instances of this kind of behavior could be heard and addressed. At the time, Cablevision issued a statement praising the FCC for ensuring an effective complaint proces, but at the same time arguing the agency lacked the authority to make the ruling. It now appears that Cablevision has quietly taken that fight to the courts:While Comcast originally hinted that they'd challenge the ruling in court as well, they've apparently put those plans on pause while they look for regulatory approval of their merger with NBC Universal.