Washington Times Quotes Singer on Comcast-Orioles Dispute

April 14, 2006

On April 14, 2006, the Washington Times featured a front-page story on the dispute between Comcast and the Baltimore Orioles over Comcast's refusal to carry Washington Nationals' games on Comcast's cable system in Washington, D.C. Pursuant to a compromise between Major League Baseball and the Baltimore Orioles that created the Nationals, Nationals' games have been combined with Orioles' games in a new cable network called "MASN," or Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, with the Orioles owning a 90 percent share in MASN. Criterion President Hal Singer was interviewed for the article, and his quote was used in the headline. According to Dr. Singer, Comcast is using its market power in Washington to foreclose MASN with the long-term aim of securing the television rights and denying those rights to rival cable and satellite operators: "The idea is that you lock up the content and then deny that content to a rival," said Hal Singer, an economist who has represented MASN in its battle with Comcast. "Once you do that, you lock in customers. They've perfected this strategy in Philadelphia." The article in its entirety can be downloaded at the Washington Times Website.