A federal judge granted Comcast’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by WHDH as the Sunbeam-owned station attempted to keep its NBC affiliation.
The Boston Herald reports U.S. Judge Richard Stearns tossed the lawsuit saying Comcast’s decision to move NBC to its own station in the market “is simply an indurate consequence of doing business in a competitive and unsentimental marketplace.”
Sunbeam had argued Comcast’s WNEU, currently a Telemundo affiliate, would not reach the entire Boston DMA. But NBC never claimed it would use the WNEU signal for a new NBC Boston.
“WHDH’s losses are the same no matter how large or small is the segment of the public able to receive WNEU’s signal,” said Stearns.
“WHDH is currently reviewing its options,” the station wrote in a statement on its website. “We do have contingency plans to operate WHDH without NBC if necessary effective January 1, 2017.”