Writers Guild wants Comcast cash for public programming

Winship suggested a significant increase in public funding for public affairs programs aired on public television would help reverse the decline of traditional news coverage.

“This approach would recognized the economic pressures placed on all news-gathering organizations by declining advertising revenues, and it would permit content creator greater latitude to pursue stories fro their intrinsic news value rather than their perceived ability to grab eyeballs and drive profit margins,” he said.

Because NBC and Comcast would result in a single company that both produces a large amount of content and distributes it via the largest cable provider in the country, Winship argued the new “mega-company” would have enormous clout over what Americans watch and the incentive to promote its own content. For that reason he proposed the government require it to contribute substantial resources to “to the production of truly independent content.”

“While this is a thoughtful proposal, it ignores the fact that, taken as a
whole, the range of public interest commitments already made by the
combined companies promises to deliver more diverse programming and more
independently produced programming than any entity has ever committed
to before,” Fitzmaurice said.

“It is up to the Congress and the public broadcasting community to
determine the appropriate ways to fund public broadcasting to meet its
mission.”