Comcast-Time Warner Merger Will Affect Millions of Rural Households Reliant on Popular Independent Programming, RFD-TV Founder Patrick Gottsch Testifies

Comcast-Time Warner Merger Will Affect Millions of Rural Households Reliant on Popular Independent Programming, RFD-TV Founder Patrick Gottsch Testifies

RFD-TV Founder to Testify Before a U.S. House Judiciary Committee Oversight Hearing on the Proposed Merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable

WASHINGTON - Patrick Gottsch, founder of RFD-TV, will testify Thursday before a hearing of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on "Competition in the Video and Broadcast Markets: the Proposed Merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable." In prepared testimony, Gottsch warns that "the choice and diversity in rural independent programming...is threatened by ongoing consolidation and vertical integration in the cable industry."

Rural Media Group is the world's leading provider of multimedia content dedicated to the rural and western lifestyle, and the parent company of RFD-TV, an independent cable channel distributed to more than 40 million U.S. homes. Launched in 2000, RFD-TV is the industry resource and business channel for rural America, with agribusiness, equine, rural lifestyle, western sports, music and entertainment programming.

Focusing on RFD-TV, Mr. Gottsch will discuss the importance of independent programming and the impact of continued consolidation in the cable industry from a rural prospective. He will explain the challenges RFD-TV has faced since the 2011 merger of Comcast and NBC Universal, and concerns surrounding the proposed merger of Comcast and Time Warner.

"RFD-TV's delivery of rural programming to both urban and rural areas contributes to connecting city and country and gives rural communities programming that is not only of interest or entertaining but that is often critical to more fully understanding rural economic issues," Mr. Gottsch says in his testimony. "Agriculture markets are international in scope and very important in rural areas, yet those markets are often nearly ignored by urban focused economic market reporting."

A merged Comcast and Time-Warner will threaten that programming, Mr. Gottsch will warn, because it would give Comcast control of 22 of the top 24 urban markets; 34 million households, including 11 million homes in the most rural U.S. counties; and some or the entire total cable distribution in 40 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

"In the past, the United States government has taken critical steps to ensure that America has a balance of services offered between the rural and urban populations," he will add. "The Information Super Highway must go down each and every country road, and provide two-way communication in order that city and country remain connected."

To read the prepared testimony in full, click here.

Watch Patrick Gottsch's testimony in real time on the House Judiciary Committee Livestream.

For more information, or to schedule an interview with Patrick Gottsch, please contact Kirk Monroe at kmonroe@prismpublicaffairs.com or (202) 207-3646.

CONTACT:
Kirk Monroe
kmonroe@prismpublicaffairs.com
(202) 207-3646

/PRNewswire-USNewswire -- May 8, 2014/

SOURCE RFD-TV

RFD-TV


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