STATEMENT OF 
COMMISSIONER MIGNON L. CLYBURN
Re: Promoting Innovation and Competition in the Provision of Multichannel Video Programming 
Distribution Services, MB Docket No. 14-261.
Change is both constant and continuous.  
As the media landscape evolves to reflect consumer demands and innovation, so too must our 
policies and regulatory regime.  This has been a constant refrain for the FCC, as we seek to keep pace 
with the invariable changes in the global communications market.
Our tastes, fashions, viewpoints and values are influenced by content transferred over our 
television, radio, desktop, or handheld devices, and for those providers of content, this presents 
opportunity and obstacles, and holds both risk and reward.
Sound regulation typically requires a careful balancing of competing interests.  In this context, it 
means our goals should be to define “multichannel video programming distributor” as broadly as possible 
to accommodate a new set of choices and offerings for consumers, while concurrently opening the avenue 
for innovation and new players.  Multiple channels of video programming, including linear video 
providers who may not own their own facilities, should be included.   We also want to insure that nascent, 
internet- based, services are not given competitive advantages over established MVPDs, who have well-
defined obligations under the law.
With this vote, I believe we have adequately balanced these interests, by accomplishing three 
noteworthy public interest objectives:  First, and foremost, we seek to provide more choice for consumers 
– always a positive goal.  Second, we create a path for new entrants by encouraging a level playing-field 
of competition in a rich market.  Third, we modernize our regulations so they comport with the new 
realities of a dynamic industry, and remain relevant in a competitive market as a result.
As the video marketplace continues to grow in ways, perhaps, unforeseen, I believe today’s 
decision to expand the definition of MVPD will prove to be prescient.