Open MIC has joined a coalition of fourteen civil rights, media justice, and tech policy and privacy organizations in signing a letter urging the Department of Justice to protect consumers by rejecting the proposed AT&T-Time Warner merger. Specifically, the letter cites the major threats to innovation and pro-consumer competition posed by the merger.
The letter states:
"The proposed merger between AT&T and Time Warner would create a media and telecommunications giant with the ability to use its assets to dominate markets, hold back competition, and harm consumers by inflating prices and impeding innovative new video services.
"...Buying Time Warner would incentivize and enable AT&T to cement its dominance and benefit itself, at the expense of pro-consumer competition in the video distribution market, by raising the cost of Time Warner programming to its rivals. It would also incentivize and enable AT&T to put onerous restrictions on programming availability, such as device or windowing restrictions, which are another way of raising the costs of its rivals."
"The proposed $85 billion AT&T-Time Warner merger is yet another example of major media consolidation that would benefit only the companies involved, while posing a disastrous threat to creators in emerging markets and to long-term competition more broadly," said Michael Connor, Executive Director of Open MIC. "Allowing AT&T to further dominate the market comes at the expense of investors, consumers, and innovators. Supporting a competitive and diverse market means opposing this merger."
Signers of the letter include Alliance for Community Media, Common Cause, Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Courage Campaign, Free Press, Media Alliance, National Hispanic Media Coalition, Open MIC (Open Media and Information Companies Initiative), New America's Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge, The Utility Reform Network, and The Writers Guild of America-West.
The full letter to Attorney General Sessions is available here.