CMA Submits FCC Filing Regarding Comcast merger

Today CMA submitted a formal filing of the letters it sent to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and the four FCC Commissioners, Ajit Pai, Mignon Clyburn, Jessica Rosenworcel and Michael O’Rielly. The letters detail concerns over the lack of protective language for PEG Access in Comcast’s merger documents.

Here is an excerpt from the letter which lists the conditions CMA is urging the FCC to seek from Comcast before approving its merger.

To protect public access channels throughout the country in communities that Comcast serves, we strongly recommend that you require Comcast to meet these three conditions for approval of its merger with Time Warner:

1. Direct and unrestricted funding to preserve the independence of local public access television channels and services.
2. Funding and capacity agreements that allow for local public access television channels to grow and evolve as cable grows and evolves.
3. Technological equality for local public access television channels to keep the public’s channels equivalent to broadcast channels in signal quality, functionality, and accessibility.

To read the full text of the letter, click here.