The United States District Court in the District of Massachusetts has dismissed the lawsuit in WHDH-TV v. Comcast Corp.
The lawsuit, filed in March, followed the complaints that WHDH owner Edmund Ansin laid out in January 2016 when NBC officially announced that they were launching NBC Boston.
At the time, sources inside WHDH told New England One that management there was convinced that they would win the lawsuit, and that they would still be the NBC affiliate after January 2017. We were told plans to operate the station without NBC, other than adding additional newscasts, weren't really being discussed because of this belief. Those thoughts will have to change now, unless WHDH decides to appeal the court's decision and drag this lawsuit out.
The decision was a quick one, and was noted on the court's decision. "Although a relatively brief time has elapsed since the hearing, the court would not want this decision to be deemed a rush to judgment. The court has been aware from the time the Complaint was filed that this matter is time sensitive because “WHDH will cease to be an NBC affiliate on January 1, 2017.” Consequently, the court has studied the pleadings as they have been filed. Any remaining questions were resolved at the very thorough and informative May 12 hearing."
After hearing arguments from both sides last week, Judge Richard G. Stearns quickly ruled in Comcast’s favor.
“WHDH’s loss of the NBC affiliation is no doubt a blow to the station’s profitability. But absent any actionable harm attributable to Comcast, it is simply an indurate consequence of doing business in a competitive and unsentimental market place. For the foregoing reasons, defendant’s motion to dismiss is allowed.” Stearns said in his ruling.
NBC was obviousluy happy with the outcome.
“We’re very pleased with the court’s decision and we look forward to delivering Boston area viewers the best local news, weather and information — along with the NBC news, sports, primetime and late night programming they already know and enjoy — when NBC Boston launches on January 1, 2017,” the network said in a statement.
This decision paves the way for NBC to launch it's own owned and operated station, NBC Boston, in the Boston television market in January 2017.
WHDH-TV addressed the lawsuit dismissal in its 7pm newscast, you can watch their statement below.
You can read the full decision here.
