Public Interest Groups Ask for Antitrust Investigation into TV Everywhere Plan

Posted 01/04/2010 at 5:31am | by Paul Lilly

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If Comcast, Time Warner Cable, AT&T, Verizon, and DirecTV get their way, you'll soon be able to watch television shows and movies on your computer and other digital devices, so long as you subscribe to both television and high-speed Internet services. The plan is part of an industry-wide 'TV Everywhere' initiative, but not everyone is stoked about the idea.

Fearful that television service providers will dominate the online video landscape, push out smaller competitors, and charge consumers unnecessarily high monthly subscription fees, public interest groups have begun sending out letters to the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate the TV Everywhere plan.

"TV Everywhere is designed to eliminate competition at a pivotal moment in the history of television," said Marvin Ammori, a law professor at the University of Nebraska and senior adviser to Free Press. "The antitrust authorities should not stand by and let the cable cartel crush Internet TV before it gets off the ground."

Naturally, the cable companies and TV service providers don't agree.

"That fact that market participants are experimenting with models in addition to fee- or advertiser-supported models is not a sign of anti-competitive conduct," said Kyle McSlarrow, chief executive of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association. "It is a sign of a dynamic and rapidly changing market in which no one knows the ultimate outcome."

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