THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 23, 1994 TAG: 9411230438
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Short : 44 lines
A federal appeals court has ruled that telephone companies may sell television programming directly to their customers.
A unanimous three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court agreed Monday with U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III of Alexandria, who last year declared the federal government's ban on sales an unconstitutional violation of free-speech rights.
The U.S. Justice Department, the Federal Communications Commission and the National Cable Television Association Inc. argued that telephone companies still could sell television programming to other cable systems or TV stations.
``While this may in general be true, the fact remains that the telephone companies cannot guarantee that video programming they wish to transmit to their local audience via cable television, a protected form of speech, will reach their desired audience,'' Judge Donald S. Russell of South Carolina wrote for the appeals court.
The only practical way of guaranteeing phone companies the ability to sell programming to their customers is to let them use their own equipment, the court said. Otherwise, the judges said, ``this ability turns on the whim of local broadcasters and cable operators.''
The ban was challenged by Bell Atlantic-Virginia, a unit of Bell Atlantic Corp. The company wants to offer TV programming to millions of customers in the mid-Atlantic, including Hampton Roads, by 1996. ILLUSTRATION: THE RULING
In 1984, Congress banned telephone companies from selling television
programing to protect cable television from telephone monopolies. On
Tuesday, a federal appeals court ruled that the ban was
unconstitutional.
KEYWORDS: CABLE TELEVISION BELL ATLANTIC CORP. LAWSUIT
by CNB