US cableco Comcast has accused a number of opponents to its planned merger with smaller rival Time Warner Cable of criticising the deal for opportunistic reasons.
In a public filing with US regulator FCC, dated 23 September 2014, the company said that…
US cableco Comcast has accused a number of opponents to its planned merger with smaller rival Time Warner Cable of criticising the deal for opportunistic reasons.
In a public filing with US regulator FCC, dated 23 September 2014, the company said that the claims submitted by a number of market players were “speculative” and “unfounded”.
It added that many of the criticisms were being made only as a result of Comcast refusing to grant such companies business concessions to win their support for the US$45bn-plus deal, which is being reviewed by the FCC and US Department of Justice.
These concessions allegedly included free backbone interconnection as well as demands for sharing advanced advertising technology that Comcast develops, among others.
In particular, Comcast took shots at Discovery Communications, claiming that the media company made “extortionate demands” as a condition for its non-opposition to the proposed merger.
In response to Comcast’s remarks, Discovery said in a statement that its competitor was trying to divert attention away from the real issue.
“Comcast chooses to not talk about the substantial programme discounts they currently get, or what they would do post-merger to demand extreme discounts from cable programmers or block the launch of new networks and brands.”
However, Comcast claimed that the merger with TWC will produce substantial public interest benefits, expand the quality of communications services available and fuel competition.
It also quoted telco AT&T’s CEO Randall Stephenson as saying that the transaction will put “a heightened sense of urgency” on competitors to “very, very aggressive[ly]” invest capital in their networks and improve the quality of their services.
Comcast formally announced its intention to take over TWC in a US$45.2bn deal in February, outbidding the US’ fourth-largest cableco Charter Communications.
Charter agreed to buy subscribers being divested by Comcast and TWC to help secure regulatory approvals for the deal.
In late August, the FCC asked for additional details on the deal. The authority, which is working on new net neutrality rules, asked the companies numerous questions about their operations, plans and financial projections. There were multiple queries about their broadband businesses, competitors in the segment and traffic management tools.
The authority is not expected to make a final ruling until early next year.
