Nexstar Media Inc. v. Comcast Cable Communications, LLC

Background

Mission Broadcasting, Inc., which Comcast had added as a third-party defendant, submitted a letter requesting that Comcast’s third-party complaint, answer, and counterclaim be sealed permanently. Mission also asked that only redacted versions of those pleadings be publicly accessible on the docket.

The pleadings referred to and quoted a retransmission consent agreement between Comcast and Mission. Mission stated that the agreement required the parties to keep its terms confidential and contained commercially sensitive business and competitive information. Mission said it had discussed the request with Nexstar Media Inc. and Comcast, and that neither opposed it.

Request and reasoning

Mission argued that federal courts have authority to control access to their own records. It maintained that the public interest in accessing the agreement’s confidential terms was slight and outweighed by the parties’ privacy and competitive interests. Mission also emphasized that it was not seeking to conceal the pleadings completely; it proposed limited redactions and submitted public and unredacted versions for the court’s review.

Ruling

The court granted the application. The order therefore permitted the requested sealing of the pleadings and public access to the redacted versions. The excerpt does not provide a separate merits ruling on the underlying dispute between Nexstar, Comcast, and Mission. Judge Koeltl’s ruling concerned the handling of confidential court filings.