Could AT&T’s 'sponsored data' plans kill public radio?

AT&T’s newly-announced “sponsored data” plan will allow companies to pay the bandwidth charges for content they stream to customers using AT&T mobile services. But some advocates have raised fears that the arrangement could hurt competition and consumers.

John Bergmayer is a staff attorney for a group called Public Knowledge. For most of our conversation, he had a hard time convincing me of the arrangement’s downside. If Netflix wants to let me watch "House of Cards" on the train without blowing my data cap, that’s bad… how? Because it hurts Hulu? But then the conversation got a little closer to home: What about news outlets that produce audio and video content? “What if Marketplace can’t afford to do deals with AT&T and other providers around the world,” he asked, “to make sure their content is exempt from the cap?” Right. That’s a worry.