Tomorrow, Public Knowledge President and CEO, Gene Kimmelman, will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the hearing titled, “Examining the Comcast-Time Warner Cable Merger and the Impact on Consumers.”
Kimmelman will highlight the consumer harms that would come from the consolidation of the nation's two largest cable and internet providers. “Claims that Comcast and Time Warner Cable systems do not geographically overlap in no way eliminate competition concerns in this proposed transaction,” said Kimmelman. “The vertical and horizontal market power at stake in this transaction could position Comcast at the crossroads of communications, television, and internet innovation.”
The following can be attributed to Gene Kimmelman, President and CEO at Public Knowledge:
“Consumers are beginning to see exciting new online services that give meaningful alternatives to the excessive prices and poor service they've come to expect from Comcast and other providers. However, this merger would give Comcast the incentive and ability to stifle competition, thwart innovation from online services, and impose higher costs on rival video and online services, which will eventually be paid for by consumers. This merger would have dire consequences for innovative online service providers and for consumers.”
The panelists for the hearing are as follows:
Gene Kimmelman
President and CEO
Public Knowledge
Washington, DC
David Cohen Executive Vice President
Comcast Corporation
Philadelphia, PA
Arthur T. Minson, Jr.
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Time Warner Cable Inc.
New York, NY
James L. Bosworth, Jr.
Chairman and CEO
Back9Network
Hartford, CT
Richard Sherwin
Chief Executive Officer
Spot On Networks
New Haven, CT
Christopher S. Yoo
John H. Chestnut Professor Of Law, Communication, and Computer & Information Science
University of Pennsylvania Law
Philadelphia, PA
A link to the testimony can be found here.