After comments from Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt at NCTA this week that his company prohibits certain content going to online pay-TV services, many in the online TV environment have been up in arms. If TWC, is in fact, interfering with content providers and distributors, it could be withholding much needed content to online services like the one Intel has planned for this year.
Earlier this year Intel announced that it would launch an online TV service, and companies like it are arguing that if Time Warner Cable and other satellite or pay-TV giants deliberately withhold content, they cannot exist.
The Justice Department is taking things into its own hands to look into these claims and whether an antitrust probe is necessary.
Read more about it at The Hollywood Reporter.
Brief Take: Policymakers need to apply existing law to prevent anti-competitive restrictions that prevent programmers from distributing their content more widely.
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