Today, Public Knowledge and the Open Technology Institute filed their replies to the opposition Comcast and Time Warner Cable filed to PK and OTI's original Petition to Deny, which asked the FCC to stop the merger of those companies.
The reply to Comcast and Time Warner Cable’s opposition can be found here. You may also view our initial petition to deny the merger.
The following statement can be attributed to John Bergmayer, Senior Staff Attorney at Public Knowledge:
“The record before the FCC is already clear: This merger is not in the public interest. If successful, Comcast, which is already the nation’s largest cable company and Internet Service Provider, would control around half of the broadband market nationwide. This would make it the nation's content gatekeeper, with the power to single-handedly decide what the nationwide media marketplace looks like. This would harm consumers by raising costs, making it more difficult to access independent programming and online content, and limiting the opportunities for new kinds of online services.
“In this filing, Public Knowledge and the Open Technology Institute rebut a few of the most egregious of Comcast's claims. Additionally, we include technical analyses and consumer survey data which underscore the power dominant ISPs like Comcast have over consumers and the broadband marketplace, and that show that the harms dominant ISPs can inflict on their subscribers are real today, and would get worse if Comcast gets even bigger.”
You may visit the Stop Mega Comcast Coalition for more information on how the merger could impact consumers.
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.