The following statement is attributed to Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge:
“We are disappointed but not surprised at the announcement this morning by Comcast and Time Warner. It is obvious that their 'TV Everywhere' is not TV for Everyone.
“Limiting access to programming is straight out of the cable playbook, going back to the days when Congress had to act in 1992 to allow the satellite programming distributors to have access to cable programming. This new version raises substantial anti-competitive issues by restricting the availability of programming to the favored distribution methods.
“Under the “TV Everywhere” plan, no other program distributors would be able to emerge, and no consumers will be able to 'cut the cord' because they find what they want online. As a result, consumers will be the losers.
“In addition, we are concerned that this program violates the open nature of the Internet. By adding this additional toll lane, Comcast and Time Warner want to create their own 'managed channel' within the Internet and turn the Internet into their own private cable channel.
“We ask the Federal Communications Commission, Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department to examine this arrangement closely not only for potential violations of not only Internet openness principles but as a generally anti-competitive and anti-consumer practice.”
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.