In the decision, Administrative Law Judge Richard L. Sippel ruled that the Tennis Channel had proved Comcast had discriminated against it by relegating the outlet to tiers of service available in fewer homes than Comcast's own Golf Channel and Versus sports channel.
"In general, the larger the interest that Comcast has in a network, the greater the distribution provided by Comcast, " Mr. Sippel wrote in the decision, which relied on federal rules that bar cable operators that own channels from discriminating against channels owned by others.