The Tennis Channel has served up lobbying papers for the first time, hiring a trio of former Hill staffers to act on their behalf.
The three lobbyists work for the firm Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti Inc. Both Kelly Bingel and David Castagnetti are former Senate office chiefs of staff, while Bruce Mehlman served as policy director for the House Republican Conference as well as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Technology Policy during the George W. Bush administration. As a young staffer for then-Rep. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), Bingel played a role in crafting a provision of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
The niche sports network, which began broadcasting in 2003, has brought the Washington, D.C. firm on board to lobby cable television regulations on the Hill. According to the lobbying filing, Tennis Channel is specifically seeking to influence application of Section 616 of the Communications Act, which prohibits discrimination in the cable television market. Tennis Channel won a landmark 2012 Federal Communications Commission ruling based on the provision against media giant Comcast Corp., only to have the ruling unanimously reversed on appeal last year. The decision would have forced Comcast to carry Tennis Channel in a less expensive package of channels.
