Consumer advocacy groups and major corporations are lining up against the Charter Communications bid to acquire Time Warner Cable, a $55 billion deal that must be approved by regulators at the Federal Communications Commission. Both those companies, which opposed the Comcast deal, have since spoken out in favor of Charter’s merger with TWC.
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Dish also said Charter would be in a position to hamper the service of online video providers, whose services compete with cable TV providers, by degrading their traffic at “choke points” on the Web.
As Roger Lynch, CEO of Sling TV, states in his accompanying declaration: “I believe that the proposed merger… would cause significant and irreparable harm to emerging competitive online video products and services, as well as the performance of traditional satellite television service, ultimately reducing competition and choice for consumers”.
Dish had joined other companies such as Netflix Inc.in drumming up opposition to that deal.
But the topic of Internet competition and net neutrality wasn’t the only issue raised by opponents to New Charter.
AT&T said that competition to cable is growing-arguing that was one reason the FCC allowed it to merge with DirecTV-but that that competition from AT&T/DirecTV and over-the-top provides “is vulnerable to coordinated exclusionary actions by cable”. In addition, Charter said it won’t charge content companies like Netflix extra fees to interconnect directly with Charter’s servers. In imposing requirements related to wireless local area networking, Charter inappropriately extends its reach into customers’ local area networks, well beyond the permissible practice of protecting Charter’s wide area network. “The extension of Charter’s business practices to its newly-acquired subscribers would grievously harm Zoom’s ability to sell cable modems to its primary customers, US retailers which sell cable modems including Best Buy, Walmart, Micro Center, Amazon and others”. It also says that the merger will create a “suffocating duopoly”, as two broadband providers (Comcast and New Charter) would control about 90 percent of the nation’s high-speed broadband homes between them.
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The National Assn. of Broadcasters is calling on the FCC to halt its review of the proposed merger of Charter Communications and until the agency completes a review of broadcast ownership rules.
