AllVid Would Leave Consumers Vulnerable, Congressional Black Caucus Members Tell FCC

Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., and 21 members of the Congressional Black Caucus wrote to the FCC opposing what was referred to as the “All Vid” proposal. The lawmakers worried of higher costs for consumers. “And even worse, while requiring consumers to rent more equipment it would eliminate consumer protections concerning privacy, emergency alerts, children’s programming and more. Consumers would pay more and be protected less,” the lawmakers said in a letter led by Clarke. “All Vid will cause irreparable harm to independent and minority programmers by allowing third parties to strip programming from visible channel placements and relegate it to the bottom of the pile. These merchants would also be allowed to sell intrusive advertising without sharing any revenue with programmers, cutting off the needed revenue to continue producing quality content.” Pay-TV companies have been opposing a revival of the FCC AllVid proposal, while some tech companies have been pursuing something that may be close to that.