Public Knowledge Calls Comcast Letter ‘Irrelevent’
Public Knowledge Calls Comcast Letter ‘Irrelevent’
Public Knowledge Calls Comcast Letter ‘Irrelevent’

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    The following statement is attributed to Gigi B. Sohn, president and
    co-founder of Public Knowledge:

    “Earlier today, Comcast issued a five-page
    letter
    which was supposed to address ‘public interest’ concerns about
    the merger with NBCU. The letter is irrelevant to our concerns, and did
    not address them at all.

    “The letter said only that Comcast would obey existing programming
    access requirements (which don’t apply to terrestrially distributed
    programming), and would comply with requirements for programming for
    children. It made no mention of making programming available to other
    online providers.

    “During the analysts call, Comcast officials said they planned to
    go ahead with their TV Everywhere plan to make cable-based programming
    available online only to cable customers behind a pay wall. That plan is
    unacceptable and incompatible with the spirit of making programming
    widely available to competitors as Comcast claims it wants to do.

    “In combining a major television network, a movie studio, a cable
    programmer, and the largest Internet Service Provider/cable operator,
    this new joint venture must be ready to take extraordinary steps to
    alleviate concerns about potential anticompetitive behavior if it expects
    the deal to be approved.”

    Members of the media may contact Communications Director Shiva Stella with inquiries, interview requests, or to join the Public Knowledge press list at shiva@publicknowledge.org or 405-249-9435.