Tuesday, December 21, 2010
WASHINGTON, D.C. — As the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today prepared to approve new rules for network neutrality, Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, called on federal regulators to apply the principles of the rules in their review of cable giant Comcast’s proposed buyout of the NBC Universal programming empire.
Consumers Union has strongly urged the FCC and the Justice Department to reject the Comcast-NBC deal.
Parul P. Desai, policy counsel for Consumers Union said, “Americans would be best served if regulators rejected the Comcast buyout of NBC. If the deal is not rejected, regulators should ensure that the principles of net neutrality are strictly applied to Comcast-NBC. One of the many concerns about the deal is that Comcast could give preferential treatment to NBC content at the expense of other content providers. These net neutrality rules could help protect consumers from some of the potential dangers of the Comcast-NBC deal, although we still maintain that the deal should be rejected outright. Should the deal go through, regulators should apply the principles of net neutrality to make clear that Comcast cannot engage in any paid-priority schemes.”
Yesterday, Consumers Union sent the FCC more than 55,000 signatures in opposition to the Comcast-NBC deal. The group recently launched a web site called SayNoToComcastNBC.org for people to urge the FCC to reject the deal.
Media contact:
David Butler, 202-462-6262