The following statement is attributed to Gigi B. Sohn, president and
co-founder of Public Knowledge:
“The House Judiciary Committee should be commended for approving
legislation that will allow for full competition from satellite providers
to incumbent cable and telephone companies in rural areas. Among other
provisions, the bill makes certain that consumers everywhere will have
their full set of broadcast network stations.
“The Committee also rejected the efforts of the broadcast networks
and preserved the compulsory license for satellite providers, which helps
to make programming become more readily available and less expensive to
consumers.
“This legislation settled several contentious issues, and is a good
blueprint for the Senate to follow as it prepares its own version of the
reauthorization language that expires this year.”
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.