Despite the FCC’s ruling that no local sports exclusives should exist providing both standard and HD sports to competitors of cable and, in turn, fans who subscribe to alternate providers, Cablevision, Comcast, and Cox (to name the big players) haven’t moved a muscle to straighten up their act.  Rather, they’ve taken the FCC to court appealing the decision – making false promises to U.S. Representatives- continuing to abuse sports fans across the country by withholding access to games.

Below is a note from one of our intelligent members about the seemingly endless struggle to supply fans with their sports on TV:

The on-going story of Cablevision holding back its High Definition sports channel MSG-HD from some providers (Verizon) while giving it to others (Time Warner) still seems to be dragging in the courts.

Despite the ruling by the FCC on January 20, 2010,  stating that “incumbent cable television providers that control unique, regional sports programming can no longer unilaterally refuse to provide access to that programming, including high-definition feeds, to competing providers.”, it seems that the ruling means very little until the appeal process runs its course.

Unfortunately, it seems there is little that can be done to speed this process up – after all, it’s been going on for years now.  Perhaps the FCC should enforce the new ruling NOW.  Let the appeal process proceed – perhaps it will move faster when Cablevision isn’t dragging their feet.  Should the ruling be overturned (unlikely), then and only then can Cablevision refuse to provide its HD feed.

An alternate interim solution might be to prevent Cablevision from providing their HD content to anybody else (including other cable providers like Time Warner).  This would then force these other cable providers to join the battle against Cablevision.

SFC loves the educated suggestions. Let’s start this process by signing the petition stating that the FCC should enforce their rule immediately. Letting Cablevision get away with this white collar crime is unacceptable. Let the FCC know you want your games, and you want them now!