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Less than an hour after CNBC’s David Faber reported late Wednesday night that Comcast had reached a $45 billion deal to buy Time Warner Cable, consumer advocates already had a laundry list of concerns.

Is Time Warner The Same As Comcast

Is Time Warner The Same As Comcast

Issues on table at #FCC, #DOJ: disputes, interconnection, bandwidth caps, pending NN lawsuit. Trance again. — Haroldfeld (@haroldfeld) February 13, 2014

Regulators May Cut The Cord On Time Warner Cable Comcast Deal

Comcast’s deal to buy Time Warner Cable will face lengthy regulatory scrutiny from both the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department, which approved the cable giant’s plan to buy NBCUniversal three years ago but were less favorable to the two horizontal deals. similar companies.

Comcast has a good track record of getting deals approved by regulators, and the company spends a lot of time and money courting Washington. Even if the deal is approved, there could be significant strings attached that could cause Comcast heartburn.

Earlier this month, Justice Department antitrust chief and FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler blocked SoftBank Corp’s idea to buy T-Mobile USA, citing reduced competition. AT&T executives are still reeling from regulators’ rejection of a $39 billion plan to acquire T-Mobile in 2011.

This deal is different because cable companies like Comcast and Time Warner don’t compete in the same markets as AT&T, T-Mobile and other wireless providers. Comcast has already offered to sell three million customers as part of a deal to keep its overall national market share below 30 percent to address regulators’ concerns. (The national cap for the cable market no longer exists because a federal appeals court struck down the FCC’s 30 percent cap in 2009, and the agency has never tried to impose a new cap.)

Comcast Weighs Three Options For Time Warner Cable Deal: Sources

Although Comcast is the nation’s largest cable provider and Time Warner is the second largest, Comcast officials have argued that antitrust regulators should look more broadly at the video market to include satellite TV, Verizon’s FiOS and AT&T’s pay TV service.

Antitrust authorities are expected to investigate how a combined Comcast-Time Warner could have more market power in negotiating fees with broadcasters for the rights to broadcast their programming. They will also look at the combined company’s control of video content, particularly regional sports networks, and things like spinning agreements with Internet backbone operators that have contracts to feed traffic from Netflix and other Web companies.

Four years ago, Comcast got into a dispute with a Tier 3 ISP over how much it would cost to deliver Netflix traffic to Comcast customers. That argument was eventually resolved, but similar disputes still exist for some users who complain that Netflix and other video downloads are slower than other Internet traffic.

Is Time Warner The Same As Comcast

At the FCC, regulators can review essentially everything about a deal, because the agency must make sure the merger is in the public interest.

In One Slide, Here’s Why Comcast Thinks The Government Should Let It Spend $45 Billion On Time Warner Cable

One issue that may not get much attention is net neutrality, although the FCC is currently focused on writing new rules to ensure that ISPs don’t intentionally block or slow down legal web traffic. Comcast has agreed to abide by the agency’s “open internet” rules until 2018, when it buys NBCUniversal. The company is voluntarily seeking to extend this agreement to Time Warner Internet customers. That means the FCC’s Open Internet rules — which were struck down by a federal appeals court in January — can still be enforced by the FCC against the nation’s largest Internet service provider.

The agency may seek further expansion of Comcast’s net neutrality agreement, as well as other terms it agreed to in 2011 when the agency approved the purchase of NBCUniversal. Most of NBCUniversal’s terms expire in 2018, but the agency may now seek to extend them by adding a few more.

“I expect Comcast/NBCU to expand the terms, especially the content sharing and net neutrality terms, as well as some price controls, especially for low-end customers,” said Robert McDowell, the Republican FCC commissioner who helped push through the approval. . The NBCU deal. “From the 50,000-foot level, Chairman Wheeler can achieve many public policy goals more quickly through the “voluntary” merger provisions than through the Commission’s rulemaking process.”

No wonder Twitter is abuzz with users complaining about the deal; Public interest groups are already working on it. “No one woke up this morning wishing their cable company was bigger or had more control over what they could watch or download,” Free Press president Craig Aaron said in a statement. “This deal will be a disaster for consumers and must be stopped.”

Charter To Buy Time Warner Cable, Become Second Biggest Broadband Provider

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The largest US cable company Comcast has signed an agreement to buy the second largest Time Warner Cable. The deal must still be approved by the Federal Communications Commission, which is currently seeking public comment on the transaction. The deadline for comments is Monday.

At first glance, it appears that the transaction should not have a major impact on customers. The service areas of traditional cable companies do not overlap, so a merger between Comcast and Time Warner will not reduce the number of cable or Internet service options for consumers.

Is Time Warner The Same As Comcast

But cable companies don’t just operate in the consumer market. They also negotiate with network owners and content providers on the “back end” of their networks. And here size has a huge – and problematic – impact on market competitiveness.

At&t And Time Warner Merger Goes Through And Comcast Makes A $65 Billion Bid On Fox — Geektyrant

A good example of this is Comcast’s dispute with Netflix earlier this year. Netflix says Comcast strongly encouraged the company to pay unfair fees for providing content to Comcast’s own customers. Comcast says it was a normal commercial dispute.

The dispute puts the FCC in an awkward position because it is difficult to draw a clear line between legitimate business practices and monopoly practices. The FCC probably doesn’t want to get bogged down in reviewing every one of the hundreds of contracts between cable companies and ISPs. However, Netflix, as well as ISPs like Level 3 and Cogent, have raised some legitimate concerns about Comcast’s business practices; Ignoring them completely is also not a good option.

A merger would make Comcast even bigger, giving it even more leverage in negotiations with Netflix and others.

This is a problem that Comcast does. Smaller providers don’t have the power to impose requirements like Comcast (and Verizon, another big ISP) on companies like Netflix. In a more decentralized broadband market, the FCC could leave such negotiations to the free market. But as the broadband market becomes more concentrated, the danger of broadband companies abusing their power increases accordingly.

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A merger would make Comcast even bigger, giving it even more leverage in negotiations with Netflix and others. This will increase the need for regulatory oversight to ensure that Comcast does not abuse its market power.

And the same point applies to the cable TV market. Comcast is negotiating with major content companies like Fox and Disney for access to their content. Currently, some of these media conglomerates have a fairly strong trading position. This allows market forces to control the cable companies.

Comcast’s addition of Time Warner Cable will result in a cable giant whose business practices require closer scrutiny from regulators. It is difficult to predict what problems may arise. But if one of America’s most uncompetitive industries becomes even more concentrated, it will likely make things worse, not better.

Is Time Warner The Same As Comcast

The FCC is interested in hearing from the public. To give your opinion, click here and fill in the repeat number 14-57. Comments will be accepted until Monday at 7:00 PM ET.

Comcast Will Acquire Time Warner Cable, Grabbing 30% Of National Market

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📅 Born: May 15, 1985 📍 Location: New York City 🖋️ Writer | Financial Enthusiast Welcome to my corner of the web! I'm John Pablo—a finance enthusiast and writer passionate about making money matters simple and accessible.

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