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Tuesday, September 02, 2014

RFD-TV founder fights cable mergers but tells CNN's 'Reliable Sources' he expects them to go through

Patrick Gottsch, founder and chairman of RFD-TV, appeared Sunday on CNN's “Reliable Sources” to discuss the proposed mergers between Comcast Cable and Time Warner Cable and AT&T U-Verse with DirecTV that could lead to Rural TV being canceled in many markets. Last year Comcast canceled Rural TV in New Mexico and Colorado.

Gottsch said David Cohen, executive vice president of Comcast, told Congress that Comcast was "primarily an urban-clustered cable company," but at least 14 percent of the 30 million people the merged company would serve are rural. Gottsch said it would be “a significant disadvantage for our channel” for Comcast to control service to that many people and refuse to carry RFD-TV. He said he expects the merger to go through, but is “trying to do everything we possibly can to raise the awareness” of the issue. He said, “They have to make sure that large, under-served audiences are addressed in this merger.” (CNN video)

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