Latest from Next TV in Comcasttwc

Comcast/TWC Critics: Neutrality Won't Sweeten It

john.eggerton@futurenet.com (John Eggerton) — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 14:45:00 +0000

Groups that don't like the proposed Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger say they would still not like it even if it had a net neutrality condition that applied the new rules regardless of their court status.

On Friday, 37 groups that have been criticizing the deal sent a letter to FCC chairman Tom Wheeler reminding him of how much they oppose it.

Now that the FCC's new Open Internet rules have been taken to court by cable and telco operators, one line of thinking is that approving the deal with a net neutrality condition would mean that a company serving between and a third and a half of broadband subs would be subjected to the rules no matter what happened in court, as was the case with the net neutrality condition on the Comcast/NBCU deal.

FCC Denies Challenges to Program Contract Access

john.eggerton@futurenet.com (John Eggerton) — Tue, 04 Nov 2014 21:30:00 +0000

The FCC has denied content companies objections to 245 individuals seeking to view programming contracts and other competitively sensitive documents submitted to the FCC as part of the reviews of the Comcast/time Warner Cable and AT&T/DirecTV merger reviews.

The FCC said that for 235 of them, the objections provided no basis for rejecting them. In the case of the other 10, which include Free Press and other nonprofits, the FCC said that the objection failed on definitional grounds.

The content companies had argued that the documents should only be viewable by outside counsel or consultants, bu the FCC said that outside counsel also applies to noncommercial entities not involved in decisionmaking--like negotiating programming contracts.

As a result, it said, those 10 should be able to view the contracts.

The FCC has modified the joint protective orders for the deal info to try and accommodate those content companies, which include CBS, Scripps Networks Interactive, Disney, Time Warner, Twenty First Century Fox, Univision and Viacom.

They had asked that contracts be reviewed at Justice, not the FCC, but the Commission denied that request and modified the order to add what it said were a unique combination of protections to exclude "competitive decisionmakers" from accessing the information. The FCC Tuesday also upheld those modifications.

On October 15, the companies, joined by Discovery and TV One, began challenging individually all those who sought to review highly confidential info, including those video programming contracts, under the FCC's modified order.

The bureau says most of those objections were not specific to the individual requests--more than 100 of them--but were instead a blanket effort to prevent any access to carriage deals.

Some commenters have accused the companies of trying to nullify the protective order by filing the multiple objections and say not having access to the contracts would hamper their evaluations of the applications.

Dish's Ergen to FCC: Deny Comcast/TWC Merger

john.eggerton@futurenet.com (John Eggerton) — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 17:00:00 +0000

Dish has told the FCC to disallow the Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger.

In meetings this week with all the commissioners, FCC staffers, and bureau chiefs, Dish chairman Charlie Ergen said the proposed Comcast/TWC deal presented "serious competitive concerns" and "therefore should be denied."

Comcast and TWC have argued to the FCC and Congress that their merger would allow them to be more competitive with national platforms like Dish, but according to FCC documents, Ergen told the FCC assemblage that the combined company would have too much leverage over the "lifeblood of over-the-top video": high-capacity "cable" broadband connections.

Ergen said Comcast/TWC would have three "choke" points it could use to harm competing for video service: the last mile connection, interconnections, and specialized services.

"It will be able to extract lower prices from programmers, which, in turn, will force programmers to extract even higher rates from smaller pay-TV providers like DISH in order to compensate the programmers for lost revenue," Ergen and other Dish execs said. "And a combined Comcast/TWC will have the incentive and ability to restrict programmers’ ability to grant digital rights to competing pay-TV and OTT video providers."

They also talked about competitive concerns with AT&T/DirecTV, saying that deal "will also be able to combine their market power to leverage programming content, to the potential detriment of consumers."

During the meetings, Dish reiterated it was planning to bid in both the upcoming ASW-3 auction and 2015 broadcast incentive auction. It said the latter "offers a win-win for broadcasters to generate revenue and continue to broadcast over the air, while ensuring that consumers will benefit from more robust competition among wireless carriers."

“As our filings have shown, every market we operate in is highly competitive," said Comcast in response. "Dish has long been one of our most vigorous competitors, and unlike us has a national footprint available in tens of millions of more homes than a combined Comcast –Time Warner Cable. Dish not wanting stronger competitors isn’t surprising and it isn’t new. Any issues regarding NBCUniversal programming and other video services, whether they be traditional or over the top, are already amply covered by pre-existing FCC rules and deal conditions.”