Last month David Cohen, Comcast’s Executive Vice President, said it was time for Washington to “check the box and move on” on net neutrality. His point was that Comcast believes net neutrality is an issue that needn’t get more consideration. Policymakers should move on and allow Comcast and other ISPs to remain free to violate net neutrality principles as they see fit -- but without the public spotlight and that has accompanied the ongoing net neutrality debate.
CCIA is glad the FCC has sided with consumers, small businesses and other end users, and not entirely with incumbent IAPs. But we worry the new proposal does not provide as much protection for consumers or small businesses as the original Open Internet plan earlier this year.
Opponents of the Open Internet argue that their position is for maintaining the fully deregulated status quo, and that the status quo allowed for the explosion of online growth and innovation over the past decade and a half. They’re half right – it was the status quo that allowed for growth; they’re mistaken when they argue they favor its continuation. Maintaining the status quo – keeping the Internet open to allow for the creativity and entrepreneurship that have driven economic growth – is exactly what Comcast and its ilk hope to stifle.
This is the rare case where public action is necessary to maintain the existing system. News this week that Comcast forces online video services to pay to play only reinforces the point that IAPs aren’t on the side of consumers and aren’t on the side of innovation. They’re on the side of whatever enhances their bottom line and limits additional competition and consumer choice.
If net neutrality rules are not adopted, the Internet, as we know it, as an information superhighway and tool for innovation, will truly be in jeopardy. IAPs say they oppose regulating the Internet. That simply isn’t true. These companies relish the idea of regulating the Internet themselves. They want to pick winners and losers, and like figure skating judges at the Olympics, they have their price.
Reports this week revealed that Comcast has been attempting to kill off competitors in the online video distribution marketplace. According to Level 3 Communications, Comcast holds its competitors in online video delivery, like Netflix, hostage and demands pay offs to deliver content to the millions of consumers who have little choice in service providers. Not so coincidentally, Comcast offers its own movie streaming service.
In a world where the free market separated winners from losers, IAPs would have to deliver a better product than Neflix, Hulu, or other online video providers. However, IAPs would rather leverage their control over Internet connections to destroy competitors -- rather than make the investment in our economy needed to develop a competitive product.
As mentioned above, the current ISP marketplace is made up of companies that are relics of an age when consumers were locked into cable television for entertainment and monopoly phone carriers for communications. Times have changes and the technology has evolved, but these companies have managed to keep themselves relevant – not through innovation or competition, but acquisition. Now, one of them looks intent to extend its reach into the content creation marketplace.
There is no legitimate reason why the Comcast-NBCU merger should be approved. Approving this merger will give Comcast even further control over the information available to American consumers and how and where they can access that information.
As
argued yesterday by Timothy Karr of Free Press, “[t] hey’ll leverage this power to suffocate online TV – like Netflix … in favor of their limited offerings.” By killing off competitors, Comcast will be able to continue to raise rates on consumers (Comcast already raises prices approximately 10 percent a year) without offering any additional value added). And, because it is uncontested in the cable and broadband market in many areas and barriers to entry are so high, it can engage in what amounts to monopoly pricing.
In addition to supporting the FCC’s move toward adopting Open Internet rules, CCIA strongly urges the Department of Justice and the FTC to block the proposed Comcast-NBCU merger, as well as future mergers between those who create content and those who distribute it.
As Senator Franken recently
wrote, preventing such concentrations of power is necessary, “both to protect competition on the Internet and in the media, and to protect the public’s interest in preserving a free and open Internet.”
