Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
joining us in studios josh turns associate program director at free press
free press dot net is the website josh thinks for a coming down the shore drive
for a a yep expanding so comcast is buying n_b_c_ or they want to anyway it
one company is the nation's biggest cable t_v_ provider d other owns a t_v_
network a bunch of cable channels a movie studio
one of the media concerns and i know i get all of the the material from free
press i know 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 impact on how to consumers and we're gonna see prices go up
we're gonna see a lot less choice neville building for consumers
was on competition
i think we're gonna see monopolies showing up in local communities where
congress is already as you say the major cable provider of major internet
providers well and now they don't own a broadcast station so say every single
source of news and information they're going to have a high handed him
and then finally the loss was just for the democracy at large mid has no bomber
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
that me diversity was key to the news information in america and and the
stephanie goes against our well as we notice because drug obama said something
during the campaign does not mean he's going to act the same way that the whole
other issue which you're not here to tell you about
there's a study that actually estimates that this proposed merger
good in the short-term boost to the the subscription prices for directv and nine
comcast pay-t_v_ services uh... for example just in philadelphia about two
dollars a month
that the longer term reminder standing in town if i'm wrong is that then
comcast subscribers it would see the increase kind of ed at a second level of
the rian next level because then comcast and say well
though that the other providers have increased their prices as a result of of
some of what we've done and janet justin what it costs those other services to
get channels we own 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
there's a lot of precipitation comcast are here is this prices
every year by surprising amounts uh... and now what we're gonna see is as you
say comcast has
own all this n_b_c_ content that they could say you know paid cablevision
hey ***
hate charter
you guys can have n_b_c_ content to pay off some more which is our raise prices
up all those different stations so there we've got prices raising both for
comcast customers and on comcast customers and as you sit down the line
opens the door for congress to raise prices
even more so yet there's a real domino affect their and it really gets into the
cause of competitive environment and how congress is really going to have
so much more play
uh... with the different content they own and off
platforms that they are
bully that their consumers and their uh... competition
because this really isn't just a run-of-the-mill merger right i mean the
issue of comcast managing and prioritizing and d_c_ content which
kinda brings us into a kind of a more net neutrality tied the discussion
uh... they could manage their the content that they own differently in
other words they could give priority in terms of
uh... image quality or there's a whole other number of issues that come up when
you talk about a merger like this
sir andy
compresses actually said paid don't worry about this merger it's vertical
interrogation stop horizontal
so this is an disney buying a_b_c_
this is comcast uh... primarily delivery platform
cable and internet
buying akan temperature and there is a don't worry that will cause a job losses
that won't cause any any problems at all
when in reality that is exactly the reason to be worth it
that now will have one company especially in eleven markets where uh...
n_b_c_ has a broadcast asian thus one company is going on
broad over-the-air broadcast spanish-language news and information as
well because telemundo swept 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 contact
content
on n_b_c_ they want you to c_n_b_c_ content that's gonna be
what going to serve their bottom line about things they have all sorts of
incentives so all of a sudden you turn on the t_v_ eleven thirty five pm
and you turn on jay leno anytime dave letterman and jay leno looks a lot clear
the audios better
that's going up all these leads to it's it's kind of away from the very top to
influence what people are watching is that not not that we know that is going
to happen but its opening the door wants to get out of the petal for a moment and
look at what conquest past actions to us
so back in two thousand seven
the associate press caught comcast blocking their own consumers their own
customers internet access
uh... two bit torrent correct and picked or obviously you can do a lot of the
torah you can share music you can share image videos that sir thanks a lot of
which it has cut its own copyright remington everything that is being done
and a torrent is people have that the idea is that
you're only sharing stuff you on into the persian downloading owns but
obviously we know that's not going up as i was going on but there are places like
nasa uses but want to see a large files so this is a fiza a file same protocol
in
congress was blocking it i think for obvious reasons and it is showing video
the web you know what in contrast to the right
uh... so there is that's anti-competitive that's just like what
they can do with n_b_c_
you know recently they just tried to jack up the prices on the company that
carries off netflix streaming
now why would that be congress has its own streaming situation l asserts that
they want you to washer so there's all sorts of ways where congress is already
at acting at a competitive nature
paves the way for that the future might hold
with all of these concerns this merger is going to happen right i mean it in
all likelihood system it's going to happen it seems very likely we could
hear within the next couple weeks so
kind of getting back in by the way were speaking the justin's associate program
director free press free press dot net
what is your thought on what should happen here and he should the result be
in in an ideal situation
comcast than n_b_c_
diskette merge
can emerge with certain stipulations and other i've already has been some
discussions about well
you can do this and you won't be able to do that and what what what would you say
anne from our position ideally they should be no mention
and i think that uh... we've shown over and over again that uh...
benefits of this merger are almost no
it's but maintain the status quo if not writting bands
and uh... threats to consumers and the competition intermedia system large i
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
of course we have to see does this violate any kind of a 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
earlier or if there's nothing illegal about it we want to throw that in
the way it works the department justice is trying to figure out whether there's
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
maintain the status quo banks who serves the public interest in so this merger
should only go through according to the law
it serves the public interest if it
moves things for the public so that really changes the scope and kind of the
premises under which we have to analyze that they're not
okay so their that is the act the angle which groups like free press and others
are or trying to work i would guess verses that this is an illegal merger
that's our josh stern's associate program director free press free press
dot net thanks for coming down
yeah i'd like to be a