Reject the Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger

OpenMedia has joined with leading tech companies and public interest groups to ask FCC Chair Tom Wheeler to reject the Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger outright. This merger puts American citizens' right to choose their own high-speed broadband connections at risk.

 Chairman Tom Wheeler 

Federal Communications Commission 

445 12th Street, SW 

Washington, DC 20554 

Re: Applications of Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc. for Consent to Assign or Transfer Control of Licenses and Authorizations, MB Docket No. 14-57 

Dear Chairman Wheeler: 

It has been more than a year since Comcast announced its intention to acquire Time Warner Cable to form a cable TV and ISP behemoth. The combined company would, among other things: control over half of the high-speed residential broadband connections in the United States; dominate pay-TV across the nation; combine even stronger distribution muscle with NBC-Universal’s “must-have” video programming; and control critical advertising and set-top-box inputs. 

Opposition to this merger began the day the deal was announced and has grown to historic proportions. Over 700,000 Americans have called on you to reject the proposed merger, far more people than have opposed any other merger in the history of the Commission. Diverse industry and public interest group stakeholders (several of which are represented by the signatories below) have filed extensive documents in strong opposition to the merger.

The message is clear: the Commission should reject this merger because it would result in too much power in the hands of one company. 

You have staked your chairmanship on the importance of fostering competition to protect consumers and spur innovation, investment, lower prices and diversity. We agree. And the only way to protect that competitive future now is to reject the Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger outright — no conditions, no side deals — no merger, period. 

As the record demonstrates, and particularly for a company with a track record of disregarding conditions from its last major acquisition, Comcast cannot be relied upon to comply with new conditions that run counter to its built-in incentives to exploit the new market power it would gain from the proposed merger. This is especially true when the sheer size and scope of a combined Comcast/Time Warner Cable, coupled with its incentive to protect its core video business from innovative “over-the-top” online video providers, would allow it to threaten nascent competition in so many different ways. If the Commission approves the merger believing that conditions can somehow prevent or address these harms, there is no going back. The consequences of getting it wrong are too great, the risks simply too high. The public deserves better. 

Your steadfast commitment to competition would risk being eviscerated if Comcast were allowed to control over 50% of high-speed residential broadband connections nationwide. No condition, including but not limited to a “net neutrality” provision modeled on the Open Internet order, can address the myriad ways a combined Comcast/Time Warner Cable would be able to thwart competition and convert its massive network into a closed system of preferential treatment for its own content or the content of a select few. 

We urge you to follow through on your commitment to competition as the single greatest source of innovation, investment and other consumer benefits. Reject the Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger. 

Respectfully submitted,

Antonio Briceno, Managing Director - beIN Sports

Todd O'Boyle, Program Director - Common Cause

Amina N. Fazlullah, Director of Policy - Benton Foundation

Angie Kronenberg, Chief Advocate and GC - COMPTEL

Robert Beury, Chief Legal Officer - Cogent Communications

Linda Sherry, Director, National Priorities - Costumer Action

Brandi Collins, Media Justice Director - Color of Change

Ed Black, President & CEO - Computer & Communications Industry Association

Mark Cooper, Research Director - Consumer Federation of America (CFA)

Ellen Bloom, Senior Director, Federal Policy - Consumers Union

Eddie Kurtz, Executive Director - Courage Campaign 

David Segal, Executive Director/Co-Founder - Demand Progress

Jeffrey Blum, Deputy General Counsel - DISH Network

Evan Engstrom, Policy Director - Engine

Matt Wood, Policy Director - Free Press

Casey Rae, Chief Executive Officer - Future of Music Coalition

Orson Aguilar, Executive Director - The Greenlining Institute 

Genevieve Morelli, President - ITTA

Mike Gravino  - LPTV Coalition 

Tracy Rosenberg, Executive Director - Media Alliance 

Robert Gnaizda, General Counsel - National Asian American Coalition 

Jill Canfield, Vice-President of Legal & Industry Assistant General Counsel - NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association 

Tim Winter, President - Parents Television Council 

Gene Kimmelman, President and CEO - Public Knowledge 

Jesse Miranda, Founder - Jesse Miranda Center for Hispanic Leadership 

Gilbert Vasquez, Chair - Los Angeles Latino Chamber of Commerce 

Wendy Levy, Executive Director - National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture 

Joshua Stager, Policy Counsel - New America’s Open Technology Institute 

Steve Anderson, Executive Director - OpenMedia 

Arturo Carmona, Executive Director - Presente 

Stephen G. Kraskin, President - Rural Broadband Alliance 

Mark Toney, Executive Director - TURN 

Michael Winship, President - Writers Guild of America, East, AFL-CIO 

Sameer Targe, General Manager - Zee Network 

David Goodfriend, Chairman - Sports Fans Coalition 

Michael Norton, President - WeatherNation 

Chris Keyser, President - Writers Guild of America, West