[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Comcast-NBC Merger 2-4-10.flv[/flv]
Comcast Chair & CEO Brian Roberts and NBC Universal President & CEO Jeff Zucker today defended their proposal to merge the two companies at a hearing held by the Senate Judiciary committee. Senate members questioned the deal’s potential impact on the media marketplace, including program availability and consumer costs. (2 hours, 3 minutes)
House Committee Energy & Commerce | Communications, Technology, and the Internet
The subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet held a hearing today titled, “An Examination of the Proposed Combination of Comcast and NBC Universal.” The hearing explored the potential impact on the media marketplace of the proposed joint venture agreement between Comcast and NBC Universal. This portion contains committee members’ opening statements and no witness statements.
House Committee Energy & Commerce | Communications, Technology, and the Internet
Witnesses testified about the potential impact on the media marketplace of the proposed joint venture agreement between Comcast and NBC Universal. Among the issues they addressed were competition in the media marketplace, possible innovations which could result from the merger, the impact on local affiliates, and the affect on consumers.
Phillip DampierFebruary 4, 2010Comcast/Xfinity, Public Policy & Gov't, VideoComments Off on Live Coverage: Comcast-NBC Merger Congressional Hearing (Updated 10:23am)
The subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet is holding a hearing titled, “An Examination of the Proposed Combination of Comcast and NBC Universal.”
The hearing explores the potential impact on the media marketplace of the proposed joint venture agreement between Comcast and NBC Universal. It begins at 9:30am EST and is expected to run for several hours.
Participants:
Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and CEO, Comcast Corporation
Jeff Zucker, President and CEO, NBC Universal
Colleen Abdoulah, President and CEO
WOW! Internet, Cable, and Phone
Mark Cooper, Ph.D., Director of Research, Consumer Federation of America
Michael J. Fiorile, President and Chief Operating Officer, The Dispatch Printing Company, Chair of the NBC Affiliates Board
Adam D. Thierer, President, Progress and Freedom Foundation
To watch, click the C-SPAN logo below. A video player will pop up in a separate window. Be sure to disable any pop-up blockers in your browser. If the player does not appear, or you are unsure how to disable your pop-up blocker, you can launch the C-SPAN 3 stream using Flash, Windows Media, or RealVideo format from this direct link.
If you miss any part of the hearing, we anticipate having an archived edition up later today.
Click logo to launch player
[Update 10:23am — The members of the Subcommittee are still making opening statements. Generally, Democratic members are expressing concerns about the transaction, Republicans are either neutral or favorable towards the merger. The ranking member, Rep. Stearns (R) from Florida read a statement that could have been drafted by Comcast and NBC. Net Neutrality and copyright enforcement issues are also coming up. Members from California, the home base for a lot in the entertainment industry, are the ones usually mentioning copyright. Republicans who have brought up Net Neutrality are universally hostile to the policy, one warning the Committee the very concept may be overturned by the DC Court of Appeals. Democrats are in favor. Both Reps. Markey and Eshoo are on the panel — they co-introduced the Net Neutrality bill in Congress.
Based on the opening statements, it appears the question and answer session will likely bring hardball questions from most of the Democrats, softball questions from most of the Republicans. But expect a handful of members to occasionally break the trend. There will also be the usual grandstanding on both sides of the aisle from time to time.]
Phillip DampierFebruary 3, 2010Net Neutrality, Public Policy & Gov't, VideoComments Off on President Obama Reiterates Support for Net Neutrality, Expresses Concern About Internet Overcharging
President Barack Obama reiterated his support for Net Neutrality policies and expressed concern about providers trying to charge higher fees and extract more money from consumers for broadband service.
In a post State of the Union question and answer session held on YouTube, the president responded to a question regarding policies that would forbid broadband providers from tampering with Internet traffic, typically for monetary gain.
“We’re getting push back, obviously, from some of the bigger carriers who would like to be able to charge more fees and extract more money from wealthier customers,” he said. “But we think that runs counter to the whole spirit of openness that has made the Internet such a powerful engine for not only economic growth, but also for the generation of ideas and creativity.”
The reference to charging higher fees and extracting more money from wealthier customers may signal Obama recognizes that Internet Overcharging schemes like usage limits and usage-based billing represent an end run around many Net Neutrality prohibitions. By charging excessively high prices for broadband traffic, Internet providers can effectively choke off potential competition to both its phone and television programming businesses, as well as higher bandwidth innovations still to come.
The Obama Administration’s support for Net Neutrality dates back to the early days of the presidential campaign, when then-Senator Obama expressed support for Net Neutrality. The Federal Communications Commission has been tasked to develop a Net Neutrality policy to be enforced by the Commission.
Critics contend the FCC has no authority to enforce such provisions.
Robert McDowell, one of the two minority Republican commissioners at the FCC predicted any attempt by the Commission to enact sweeping Net Neutrality policies would likely face a rapid challenge in the courts. One popular venue for such cases has been the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, which has a track record of deciding cases in favor of providers.
Such a ruling could partially or completely derail an FCC Net Neutrality policy until Congress passed legislation to specifically authorize the Commission to regulate broadband policy. Congress can also pass Net Neutrality legislation itself.
President Barack Obama answers a question about Net Neutrality policy in his administration.
[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WSYR Syracuse Cut Your Phone, Cable and Internet Costs 1-25-10.flv[/flv]
Consumer Reports February 2010 issue rates service providers and gives advice to consumers about where and how to get the best deal for telephone, cable, and broadband service. WSYR-TV in Syracuse breaks it down. (2 minutes)
Be Sure to Read Part One: Astroturf Overload — Broadband for America = One Giant Industry Front Group for an important introduction to what this super-sized industry front group is all about. Members of Broadband for America Red: A company or group actively engaging in anti-consumer lobbying, opposes Net Neutrality, supports Internet Overcharging, belongs to […]
Astroturf: One of the underhanded tactics increasingly being used by telecom companies is “Astroturf lobbying” – creating front groups that try to mimic true grassroots, but that are all about corporate money, not citizen power. Astroturf lobbying is hardly a new approach. Senator Lloyd Bentsen is credited with coining the term in the 1980s to […]
Hong Kong remains bullish on broadband. Despite the economic downturn, City Telecom continues to invest millions in constructing one of Hong Kong’s largest fiber optic broadband networks, providing fiber to the home connections to residents. City Telecom’s HK Broadband service relies on an all-fiber optic network, and has been dubbed “the Verizon FiOS of Hong […]
BendBroadband, a small provider serving central Oregon, breathlessly announced the imminent launch of new higher speed broadband service for its customers after completing an upgrade to DOCSIS 3. Along with the launch announcement came a new logo of a sprinting dog the company attaches its new tagline to: “We’re the local dog. We better be […]
Stop the Cap! reader Rick has been educating me about some of the new-found aggression by Shaw Communications, one of western Canada’s largest telecommunications companies, in expanding its business reach across Canada. Woe to those who get in the way. Novus Entertainment is already familiar with this story. As Stop the Cap! reported previously, Shaw […]
The Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission, the Canadian equivalent of the Federal Communications Commission in Washington, may be forced to consider American broadband policy before defining Net Neutrality and its role in Canadian broadband, according to an article published today in The Globe & Mail. [FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s] proposal – to codify and enforce some […]
In March 2000, two cable magnates sat down for the cable industry equivalent of My Dinner With Andre. Fine wine, beautiful table linens, an exquisite meal, and a Monopoly board with pieces swapped back and forth representing hundreds of thousands of Canadian consumers. Ted Rogers and Jim Shaw drew a line on the western Ontario […]
Just like FairPoint Communications, the Towering Inferno of phone companies haunting New England, Frontier Communications is making a whole lot of promises to state regulators and consumers, if they’ll only support the deal to transfer ownership of phone service from Verizon to them. This time, Frontier is issuing a self-serving press release touting their investment […]
I see it took all of five minutes for George Ou and his friends at Digital Society to be swayed by the tunnel vision myopia of last week’s latest effort to justify Internet Overcharging schemes. Until recently, I’ve always rationalized my distain for smaller usage caps by ignoring the fact that I’m being subsidized by […]
In 2007, we took our first major trip away from western New York in 20 years and spent two weeks an hour away from Calgary, Alberta. After two weeks in Kananaskis Country, Banff, Calgary, and other spots all over southern Alberta, we came away with the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The Good Alberta […]
A federal appeals court in Washington has struck down, for a second time, a rulemaking by the Federal Communications Commission to limit the size of the nation’s largest cable operators to 30% of the nation’s pay television marketplace, calling the rule “arbitrary and capricious.” The 30% rule, designed to keep no single company from controlling […]
Less than half of Americans surveyed by PC Magazine report they are very satisfied with the broadband speed delivered by their Internet service provider. PC Magazine released a comprehensive study this month on speed, provider satisfaction, and consumer opinions about the state of broadband in their community. The publisher sampled more than 17,000 participants, checking […]