[August 28, 2009] U.S. court: Comcast can expand Tweet Aug 28, 2009 (The Philadelphia Inquirer - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- In a big victory for Comcast Corp., a federal appeals court overturned a regulation that limited the nation's cable giant to 30 percent of the cable-TV market, opening the door for more big acquisitions for Comcast. The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for Washington was released today. "We hold the 30 percent subscriber limit is arbitrary and capricious because the [Federal Communications Commission] failed adequately to take account of the substantial competition cable operators face from non-cable video programming distributors," the court wrote. The regulation, passed under Kevin Martin, former chairman of the FCC, was fiercely opposed by Comcast, which said the regulation basically froze its cable-TV business. Comcast's market share was 27 percent -- about 24 million cable TV customers -- at the time the new regulation was enacted. Comcast blasted Martin, a Republican who regularly criticized the cable-TV industry for high rates and indecent programming. Martin, a Republican, allied himself with Democratic FCC commissioners for the new regulation. Advocates of the 30 percent market cap believed it was necessary because, they said, Comcast was a monopoly and had the power to crush entertainment networks by not carrying them on the Comcast system. Comcast had no immediate comment. ------ Contact Bob Fernandez at 215-854-5897 or [email protected]. To see more of The Philadelphia Inquirer, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.philly.com/inquirer. Copyright (c) 2009, The Philadelphia Inquirer Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]