Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
joining us in studios josh stern's associate program director at free press
free press dot net is the website josh thanks for coming down the shore drive
for you kappa traveling so contest is buying n_b_c_ or they want to anyway it
one company is the nation's biggest cable t_v_ provider the other owns a
t_v_ network a bunch of cable channels and movie studio
what are the immediate concerns and i know i get all of the the material from
free press and that there's a lot of concerns about this but what would you
outline is that the real can major one or two concerns with this possible deal
yeah i think there's three really
one is the impacts going to happen consumers and we're going to see prices
go up
we're gonna see a lot less choice no they'll building for consumers ones on
competition
i think we're gonna see monopolies showing up in local communities for
compresses already
as you say the major cable prior major internet providers well
and now that i want to broadcast stations jose every single source of
business mission they're going to have a hand in
and then finally at a loss was just for the democracy a large mid president
obama has been extraordinarily clear about the dangers of needy salvation he
made a part of his platform and said he didn't want to see any more media
consolidation me diversity was key
the news information in america and and the step ladders against apple as we
noticed because brock obama said something during the campaign does not
mean he's going to act the same way that the whole other issue which you had a
retired up there's a study that actually estimates that this proposed merger
could in the short-term boost that this subscription prices for directv and non
comcast pay-t_v_ services and for example just in philadelphia about two
dollars a month
the the longer term
for my understanding and tell me if i'm wrong is that then
comcast subscribers would see the increase kind of a nanosecond level of
the rian next level because then comcast considered well
vote the other providers have increased their prices as a result of of some of
what we've done in janet justin what it costs
those other services to get channels we on now we are going to raise prices so
in a way won't comcast be able to say
we're just doing it because directv did
well there's a lot of precipitation congress already raised its prices
every year by surprising amounts
by and now what we're going to see
is as you say comcast has
cannot own all this n_b_c_ content that they could say
you know hate cablevision
hey *** paid charter
you guys can't have n_b_c_ content to pass a more which is our raise prices up
all those different stations
so there we've got prices raising both for comcast customers an on-campus
customers and as you sit down the line
that opens the door for congress to raise prices
even more so yet there's a real domino affect their i really gets into the
cause of competitive environment and how congress is really going to have
so much more play
with the different content they own and of platforms that they are
pulley that their consumers and their competition because this really isn't
just a run-of-the-mill merger right i mean the issue date of comcast managing
and prioritizing n_b_c_ content which kinda brings us into a kind of a more
net neutrality ted the discussion
they could manage their the content that they own differently in other words they
could give priority in terms of
image quality or there's a whole other number of issues that come up when you
talk about a merger like this share i mean
compresses actually said hey don't worry about smarter to vertical integration
software sample
so this is an
disney buying a_b_c_
this is a calm pastor primarily delivery platform of cable and internet
buying a content protection there is a don't worry that will cause a job losses
that won't cause any any probs at all
when in reality that is exactly the reason to be worried
that now will have one company especially in eleven markets where
n_b_c_ has a broadcast station
as one company is going on
internet
rock over their broadcast spanish-language news and information as
well coleman does wrapped up in this
and so what we end up having is this new form of mini media monopoly
that gives companies all this power to as you see prioritize content
content on n_b_c_ they want you to c_n_b_c_ content that's going to be
what going to serve their bomb on the *** days worth of incentives are
all of a sudden you turn on the t_v_ eleven thirty five pm
and you turn on jay leno and eastern and dave letterman and jay leno looks a lot
clear the audios better
that's going up obviously leads to it's a it's kind of away from the very top to
influence what people are watching this did not not that we know that is going
to happen but its opening the door
well let's take another hypothetical for a moment and look at what comcast past
actions callas
so back in two thousand seven
the associated press caught comcast blocking their own consumers their own
customers internet access
to bit torrent right and victoria obviously you can do about the torrent
you can share music and share emit videos that sir thanks a lot of which it
has cut its own copyright reading another thing that is being done and it
torrent is people have that the idea is that
you're only sharing stuff and you own and that the person downloading owns but
obviously we know that's not going out that i was going on but there are places
that nasa uses but want to share large file d
so this is a a this is a file-sharing protocol and
congress was blocking it i think for obvious reasons an efficient video of
the web you not watching congress for the road
so there is that's anti-competitive that's just like what they can do with
n_b_c_
the recently they just tried to jack up the prices on the company that carries
all the effort streaming
now why would that be
congress has its own streaming situation service that they want you to watcher
so there's all sorts of ways where congress is already an acting at a
competitive nature
paves the way for that the few travel
with all of these concerns this merger is going to happen right i mean it in
all likelihood since it was going to happen it seems very likely we could
hear within the next couple weeks
when we talk about it when you mention the issue of what the channel cost
different
cable services to carry
i first heard this discussed a couple of years ago actually on the howard stern
show and the idea that if people had the opportunity when you get the sixty
dollar month cable package
typically channels you want
not the way they want you to which is for an extra ten dollars you get this
whole list
but really ala carte
there's a lot of channels that wouldn't even survive number one because they're
basically riding on the coattails of the channels that people are watching the
reasons why cable subscriber cable companies don't want to do it is obvious
is this
how does this effect that it is if at all it is a throw a monkey wrench into
that is there a possibility we might ever have ala carte pricing
it's really hard to say in our country hasn't come up that much in the
discussions of this merger and
but it's interesting the think about you know if you look at how many people
watch your show on youtube for the young turks another example
wildly popular show on the internet and make it that because they can choose to
get reckoned it hasn't so stop shows like yours you know that your interest
in becoming wildly popular
and so i think that there's this way in which all a car pricing actually could
really help independent voices ram night i think you're going that's one of the
reasons why the big companies i want to write right here
yet so
whether this merger will help move that issue forward is yet to be seen
kind of getting back and by the way were speaking the judge turns associate
program director free press free press dot net
what is your thoughts on what should happen here i mean should the result be
in in an ideal situation
comcast and n_b_c_ just can't merge
can emerge with certain stipulations another i've already has been some
discussions about well
you can't do this and you won't be able to do that and what what what would you
say
i mean it from our position ideally they should be no midshipmen
may i think that the we've shown over and over again that the
benefits of this merger are are almost nil
expert maintain the status quo if not hurting things
and uh... threats to consumers and the competition anti-media system larger
really think that this will be shaper media
it'll be shaped the way the every single one of us watches tv especially as more
and more of us want to cut the cord watch t_v_ online legally speaking
though if there is nothing illegal about the merger
who of course we have to see does this violate any kind of antitrust
legislation so and so forth if there's nothing illegal
do we really want
politicians legislating based on their feeling about this this on the whole
improve ur
war her if there's nothing illegal about it we want to throw that in
the way it works the department asked a space trying to figure out what it is
anti
trust issues here right that's that piece of it
the federal communications commission is also reveal a merger and their
responsibility
is to make sure that this merger doesn't just
maintenance test quebec's who serves the public interest then so this merger
should only go through according to the law
it serves the public interest if it
stands for the public so that really changes the scope and the kind of the
premises under which we have to analyze whether or not
okay so their that is the act the angle which groups like free press and others
are trying to work i would guess verses that this is an illegal merger
interesting
last thing on the f_c_c_ last week we talked about earthy days ago we talked
about al sharpton
wanting the f_c_c_ to get involved with with rush limbaugh because rush limbaugh
made some racist statements
anthony hey i don't like rush limbaugh anymore than our sharpened as also don't
i'm not a big fan of al sharpton
this is the wrong way to try to get the f_c_c_ involved in trying to get them to
in force content type of decisions right now that i was going to lose on that yet
we don't think that that issue should be involved in composition of it but the
government also involved in compensations
we do think there's a role for the government to be
increasing the diversity of the police on their witness
so we should be seeing things that they used to be something called the minority
media tax credit that actually
the tax benefits put more air waves in the hands of
women and minorities and telemedia
when that was in place hundreds of new minority owned and we met women own
stations or on the air
really interested to pursue viewpoints
of local owners
and all those things help
so there is not just rush limbaugh and every station then turn the dial
so what we really need to do is to have much broader diversity of of newson
information invoices
not to be set out in any one of the invited the debt credit go away it did
he got stripped out
and they really in the ladies then
well that's a it's already been sometime in fact is that it's been gone as we see
if he actually look at the representation of of minority voices in
the media even though some will hand pick a hate you know a handful and say
hey to does exist
the overwhelming majority is not is not those voices we've actually done the
research that says he has refused to do on female minority ownership on radio
and t_v_ it free press
and you can find it if you press dot net
and what we found is that asked me to consolidation has increased
is dramatically her women minority owned his first
josh turns associate program director free press free press dot net thanks for
coming down they are going to be a