http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/...ter-Merger-is-Building-Another-Comcast-136243
Former FCC Commissioner Michael Copps has penned a post at Medium wondering why there's not more resistance to Charter's $79 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. According to the former FCC staffer, who complains that the three merging companies would create "a new Mega Cable company" that would control about a third of the country's cable and cable broadband markets.
"In addition, the new colossus would own programming, including regional sports networks all across the country, and would completely dominate some of America’s largest media markets, including New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas, Charlotte, Tampa Bay, Orlando and St. Louis," worries Copps. "Finally, the combined companies would have an anticompetitive incentive to preference their streaming video offering over that of competitors."
Charter has promised to adhere to net neutrality and avoid usage caps for a period of three years if the deal gets approved. The company this week also hinted that it would hire 20,000 more support employees if the deal's approved.
Of course three years of adhering to neutrality isn't much of a promise, and merger job promises tend to be equally as empty. Most mega-mergers usually eliminate countless jobs as cross-company redundancies in management, support, PR, and social media are eliminated.
According to Copps, all we're really doing is building another Comcast, which will wind up acting -- just like Comcast.
"When you add it up, the new company would look a lot like, well, Comcast," notes the Commissioner. "Yes, this merger would create a new Comcast?—?a national cable giant with the ability and the incentive to thwart competition, diversity, and consumer choice."
Despite not faring much better than Comcast in most satisfaction and support studies, Charter's merger has only seen a fraction of the public backlash the Comcast merger did. As a result regulators aren't seeing as much political pressure to block the deal, which is expected to be approved over the next few months with the usual assortment of paper-mache grade conditions and commitments.
Former FCC Commissioner Michael Copps has penned a post at Medium wondering why there's not more resistance to Charter's $79 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. According to the former FCC staffer, who complains that the three merging companies would create "a new Mega Cable company" that would control about a third of the country's cable and cable broadband markets.
"In addition, the new colossus would own programming, including regional sports networks all across the country, and would completely dominate some of America’s largest media markets, including New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas, Charlotte, Tampa Bay, Orlando and St. Louis," worries Copps. "Finally, the combined companies would have an anticompetitive incentive to preference their streaming video offering over that of competitors."
Charter has promised to adhere to net neutrality and avoid usage caps for a period of three years if the deal gets approved. The company this week also hinted that it would hire 20,000 more support employees if the deal's approved.
Of course three years of adhering to neutrality isn't much of a promise, and merger job promises tend to be equally as empty. Most mega-mergers usually eliminate countless jobs as cross-company redundancies in management, support, PR, and social media are eliminated.
According to Copps, all we're really doing is building another Comcast, which will wind up acting -- just like Comcast.
"When you add it up, the new company would look a lot like, well, Comcast," notes the Commissioner. "Yes, this merger would create a new Comcast?—?a national cable giant with the ability and the incentive to thwart competition, diversity, and consumer choice."
Despite not faring much better than Comcast in most satisfaction and support studies, Charter's merger has only seen a fraction of the public backlash the Comcast merger did. As a result regulators aren't seeing as much political pressure to block the deal, which is expected to be approved over the next few months with the usual assortment of paper-mache grade conditions and commitments.
