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Please consider this request from Patrick at RFD Rural TV and Radio:
Ladies & Gentlemen,
Last fall, you sent RFD-TV a letter of support in regards to Comcast dropping our channel in Colorado and New Mexico. Last month we took those e-mails to Washington DC and shared them with Congressmen, Senators, the FCC and the Department of Justice showing how important rural, independent programming was to your home. Thousands of e-mails. Boy, was it effective!!!
These same people are now reviewing the potential merger between Comcast Cable and Time Warner Cable, along with the pending merger of AT&T with DIRECTV. Together, if approved, these two mergers will control cable in over 54 million homes in all 50 states. This is a big deal, and will essentially determine RFD-TV and RURAL TV's carriage for the next several years on all these cable and satellite systems. You can make a difference, and help influence this important decision.
We have the attention of Washington DC, and it sure appears that they want to do something to address the problem for rural, independent television channels like ours. Let me be clear - RFD-TV is NOT against either of these mergers, but we see this as an opportunity to not only get RFD-TV back on Comcast in Colorado and New Mexico, but on all their combined cable systems with the merger.
At this time, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) wants to get comments from the public about RFD-TV and Comcast. Here is your chance to really make a difference. There is a short and simple process to register your comments directly to the FCC. Here's how:
- Click here to go directly to the FCC page for making comments. (PLEASE REVIEW STEPS 1-5 FIRST)
- Select Proceeding Number 14-57: Applications of Comcast Corporation and Time Warner Cable Inc. for Consent to Assign or Transfer Control of Licenses and Applications.
- Fill out the form with your name, address, and comments in the boxes provided. Our Proceeding is 14-57. Be sure that 14-57 is in that first line when asked for the Proceeding Number.
- Click "Continue" at the end, where you will review your information and comments one more time.
- Click "CONFIRM" and your comments are then delivered to the FCC.
I ask that you do this in the next few days, as there will be a limit to the time for public comment. I have sent my request and hope you do too.
Ed Winkle
That's why we need rural optical fiber too, so that these small channels can market directly to their customers without the middle man big networks, and so that customers can pay for what they actually watch, not packages of dozens of garbage channels that they rarely or never watch, or would not have subscribed to if they could avoid it in the first place.
ReplyDeleteTriple Play Internet (Internet+phone+TV rolled in one) in Europe included about 100 TV channels even on copper (DSL 2 phone lines) although the bandwidth required made it possible only in cities, where you always live near a terminal connection point. Optical fiber allows for longer distances like you need in rural setups. We manage to connect every home to the grid and phone, didn't we, and the U.S. is the most powerful country in the world that can achieve anything, isn't it?
Talk about coincidences: Former FCC Commissioner: “We Should Be Ashamed Of Ourselves” For State of Broadband In The U.S.
ReplyDeletehttp://consumerist.com/2014/06/18/former-fcc-commissioner-we-should-be-ashamed-of-ourselves-for-state-of-broadband-in-the-u-s/