Comcast Spent $2.8M Lobbying Government In 1Q

WASHINGTON (AP) — Comcast Corp. spent nearly $2.8 million in the first quarter to lobby on employee unions, sports programming, taxes and other issues, according to a recent disclosure report.

The nation's largest cable operator lobbied Congress on the Employee Free Choice Act of 2009, a bill that would make it easier for workers to unionize.

In the January-March period, Philadelphia-based Comcast also lobbied on cable's carriage of sports programming such as the NFL Network and Mid-Atlantic Sports Network.

Comcast and the National Football League last month agreed on a fee and carriage deal for the NFL Network. As a result, both sides dropped their lawsuits against each other. The NFL also dropped its complaint before the Federal Communications Commission.

The NFL sued Comcast in 2006 after the cable operator announced it was moving the NFL Network to a premium sports tier with fewer viewers, from a more popular digital TV tier. Comcast said the NFL asked for steep price hike per subscriber and moving the network would save it money.

But Comcast still faces a fight before the FCC over cable's carriage of the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network. The network is alleging that Comcast discriminates against it in favor of carrying its own sports networks.

Comcast also lobbied on carriage of independent programming, public, educational and government channels, broadband stimulus funding, and taxation of mobile telecom and voice over Internet protocol services, according to the report filed April 20 with the House clerk's office.