Discovery Lobbies on Comcast/TWC Deal

Discovery Channel has enlisted a pair of Hill vets now with Glover Park Group to lobby on the Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger, according to a copy of a lobbying disclosure form obtained by B&C/MultiChannel News.

On the case are Susan Brophy, former chief of staff to retired Senator Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Gregg Rothschild, former key staffer to former Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.).

A Discovery spokesperson confirmed the two were lobbying on the deal, would not comment further.

Discovery has not officially weighed in on, or against, the deal, but it has concerns about merging media in general.

“Consolidation raises some real issues here in the U.S. and everywhere in the world," CEO David Zaslav said at the Sanford Bernstein investor conference in May. "We are taking a look at the Comcast deal. We are studying it. It looks like the timing is going to be longer than everybody thought based on the AT&T-DirecTV piece... What was thought to be an end of year is probably a first or second quarter of next year. So we have some time to take a look at what this means for us and make a determination.”

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.