Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Comcast Corp., DirecTV Group Inc. and 11 other pay-TV providers won dismissal of an antitrust lawsuit brought by consumers who said they are harmed by the industry practice of bundling programs in subscription packages.

U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder in an Oct. 15 ruling denied a request by lawyers for the consumers that they don’t have to show competitors have been excluded to proceed with their antitrust claims. Both sides previously agreed that, if the judge denies the request, the case would be dismissed and the decision appealed.

“Plaintiffs do not seek to allege that any actual or potential competitors have been foreclosed from the tied product market,” Snyder said in her ruling. “It is not sufficient to allege that a desirable version of a product is excluded from the market.”

Comcast, DirecTV, Time Warner Cable Inc., Walt Disney Co. and NBC Universal Inc. were among the cable and satellite-TV programmers and distributors that were sued in September of 2007 in Los Angeles. The complaint accused the companies of preventing competition among TV providers by offering only prepackaged tiers of programs and by refusing to allow consumers to buy channels “a la carte.”

Maxwell Blecher, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, didn’t immediately return a call for comment.

The consumers had sought a ruling that they didn’t have to prove that independent programmers are excluded from the market through bundling because it wasn’t “causally related,” to their allegation they are getting overcharged, according to Snyder’s ruling.

The case is Brantley v. NBC Universal Inc., 07-6101, U.S. District Court, Central District of California (Los Angeles.)

To contact the reporter on this story: Edvard Pettersson in Los Angeles at epettersson@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 19, 2009 15:53 EDT