MPA, WarnerMedia, WLF Back a la Carte Law Legal Challenge

Maine's a la carte cable programming law would play havoc with existing business relationships between programmers and distributors and ultimately mean viewers have less, not more, access to content, said amicus briefs filed Thursday with the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (docket 20-1104) by the MPA, WarnerMedia and Washington Legal Foundation (WLF). Maine is appealing a lower court's grant of a preliminary injunction blocking the law (see 2004300011). The state law is "a radical and surprising mandate" that's incompatible with the structure of existing licensed programming relationships between content owners and distributors and MPA members' exclusive rights under copyright law, MPA said (in Pacer). Most content wouldn't be economically viable if it were offered a la carte, and cable operators would have to stop offering all content for which they lack an a la carte license, reducing the amount of content available. WarnerMedia said (in Pacer) that the state law also is a First Amendment violation by requiring cable operators "to snip particular content out of the coherent whole in which a programmer has placed it." The WLF said (in Pacer) the lower court diverged from a plain reading of the Cable Act, which clearly says the federal government preempts state regulation of how cable TV is provided. The Maine Attorney General's Office didn't comment Friday.