As you may or may not know, Senator Al Franken (D. MN) is a big opponent of the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger and to make his case, he's calling on Netflix to speak up against this deal:
http://www.thewrap.com/...
The Comcast-Time Warner Cable deal continues to draw fire from U.S. Senator Al Franken.
In a letter Wednesday to Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings, the senator pressed Hastings to go on record about how the Comcast-Time Warner Cable deal could hurt internet content providers.
If the merger goes through, Franken wrote that it “would give Comcast both the power and the incentive to act as a gatekeeper on the Internet, raising costs and limiting choices for consumers.”
Franken went on to say that Hastings and Netflix are “uniquely positioned to gauge the risks” of the potential buyout, in part due to the controversial deal that Netflix and Comcast recently made. - The Wrap, 4/16/14
Here's what Franken is wanting from Hastings:
http://www.theverge.com/...
Franken has asked Hastings to answer a series of questions pertaining to the deal. First, he wants to know whether the deal would grant Comcast increased leverage to "extract payments from non-affiliated entities" like Netflix and other services that deliver content to consumers over broadband. He also wants Hasting's take on what Comcast has previously said about interconnection deals — such as the one with Netflix. And finally, Franken wants an honest answer from Hastings on whether he believes Comcast truly faces a "competitive marketplace." Franken's letter offers no deadline for a response from Hastings, so it's not clear when the CEO will choose to respond. He's already publicly commented on net neutrality, and some of Franken's questions could prompt Hastings to expand on those thoughts.
In response to critics, Comcast has repeatedly highlighted the Open Internet rules it's permitted to follow until 2018; the company says it expects new FCC rules covering net neutrality to be in place by then, rendering many of these concerns irrelevant. - The Verge, 4/16/14
And here's why Franken wants Hastings and Netflix to speak up and speak out:
http://www.cnet.com/...
It's likely Franken singled out Netflix because the video-streaming service butted heads with Comcast recently over having to pay for direct access to its broadband network.
The two companies had for years been locked in a dispute over the cost of delivering Netflix streams to customers over Comcast's broadband network. While Netflix wanted to connect to Comcast's network for free, the cable giant sought compensation for the heavy traffic that Netflix users generate, arguing that it costs the company a lot to deliver Internet video.
In recent months, the dispute appeared to be heating up, with suggestions that Comcast customers were seeing their connections to Netflix degraded. Finally, in February, the two companies made a deal in which Netflix agreed to pay Comcast an undisclosed sum to connect directly to Comcast's network instead of going through intermediaries, as it formerly did.
Netflix isn't the only company to pay Comcast for interconnection. While the terms of Comcast's deals with Netflix and other companies aren't known, it is recognized that other Internet content providers, such as Facebook and Google, also pay Comcast for this interconnection.
In February, Comcast announced its multibillion-dollar deal with Time Warner Cable. If this merger is approved, it could create a cable empire serving 33 million customers across the country.
The deal has sparked strong opposition from some consumer groups and other critics, who say that a combined Comcast and Time Warner Cable would be too powerful. Comcast is the largest cable operator in the nation and Time Warner Cable is the second largest. Comcast maintains the two companies do not overlap directly in any market for broadband or video services, and their combination will strengthen consumers' service options.
So far, no large companies have been willing to stick their necks out and say whether they think the merger is good or bad. - CNET, 4/16/14
More below the fold.
I have to say, Franken deserves a lot of praise on taking the lead against this merger and has been tenacious in his opposition:
http://thehill.com/...
Sen. Al Franken’s (D-Minn.) battle against consolidation in the media and communications industries is quickly becoming his signature issue.
While the senator keeps a low profile in Washington and generally avoids the press, he’s become a visible and vocal force when it comes to merger deals like the one now being proposed by Comcast.
He opposed the company’s 2011 purchase of NBC, where he worked for years as a performer and writer for Saturday Night Live, and is now waging a one-man crusade against Comcast’s proposed merger with Time Warner Cable in hearings, letters and television appearances.
Franken argues the combination of the nation’s two largest cable companies would be harmful to consumers and give more market share to a company with a poor reputation on customer service.
“I’ve heard from consumers who are worried that this deal will result in higher prices, fewer choices, and even worse service — and it’s important to me that their voices be heard,” Franken said in a statement to The Hill, pointing to his past experience challenging mergers between telecom giants.
“That’s why I oppose this deal, and it’s also why I actively opposed AT&T’s proposed merger with T-Mobile and Comcast’s merger with NBC Universal.” - The Hill, 4/15/14
And Franken has been making his case well known on the air:
http://www.cnn.com/...
More than 100,000 people -- including many from my own state of Minnesota -- have written to me expressing frustration that they are already paying significantly higher prices for increasingly poor cable and broadband service. Many note that they are unable to get a better deal because, where they live, there is only one viable option (in Minnesota, it's usually Comcast). And they worry that this deal will only make things worse.
Comcast dismisses these concerns by pointing out that it does not directly compete with Time Warner Cable in any zip code -- as if that's supposed to reassure us.
But the fact that the two biggest cable companies have already effectively managed to carve the country up into local monopolies shouldn't make us feel any better about their plan to become one giant company. Indeed, it's a clear sign that the cable market needs more competition, not less.
As for satellite TV and wireless Internet providers -- which Comcast would have you believe are forcing it and Time Warner Cable to band together in an uphill battle for survival -- they simply don't represent real competition.
You can get your TV from a satellite provider, but it usually won't come with high-speed broadband Internet. And wireless Internet is not a viable substitute for broadband -- particularly if you want to watch TV online.
Essentially, if you want both TV service and high-speed Internet, you are stuck with a big cable and broadband company like Comcast or Time Warner Cable -- "or" being the appropriate preposition here, because, as Comcast brags, many Americans already have just one of these companies to choose from where they live. And if this deal goes through, Comcast will become the only option for millions more consumers.
The danger in allowing Comcast to accrue even more power is not purely hypothetical. The company is already using its dominant position to dictate terms to content providers seeking to reach its 20 million customers. - Sen. Al Franken (D. MN), CNN, 4/12/14
Franken continues his argument:
http://thehill.com/...
"This is a disaster," Franken said on "Reliable Sources."
"This is the No. 1 cable TV company buying the No. 2. And this is the No. 1 Internet broadband company buying the No. 3."
Asked if there is any upside in the deal for consumers, Franken said, "I can't see one. I mean, I really can't."
The Minnesota Democrat made news last week as one of the only lawmakers to slam Comcast at a congressional hearing on Wednesday.
The cable giant is mounting an enormous lobbying push in favor of the merger on Capitol Hill.
Executive Vice President David Cohen, a major Democratic donor, told senators that the deal will improve the quality and reliability of Comcast services.
He also promised that the corporate marriage will not raise prices on consumers. - The Hill, 4/13/14
Franken was pretty testy with Cohen during his hearing:
http://variety.com/...
The testiest exchange during the three-hour session — the first major public forum for pols to weigh in on the deal that would unite the nation’s two largest cable operators — came between Cohen and Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), who has been a vocal critic of the merger. Franken pressed Cohen on specifics about Comcast’s dealings with various competitors and the FCC in the three years since it was granted approval to take over NBCUniversal.
The questions posed by Franken and other members of the Senate Judiciary Committee reflected increasing consumer gripes over rising monthly bills, in many cases well above the rate of inflation. Time Warner Cable, for instance, instituted across-the-board price increases in the past month across an array of channels and services that have seen some customers rates rise as much as 9%.
Franken was the only member of the committee to explicitly say that he was against the merger, noting that he has heard from some “100,000 consumers who oppose the deal.” He has expressed opposition from the start, and has linked to a petition on his campaign website.
Although Cohen has repeatedly stressed that Comcast would not be combining with a competitor for cable or broadband in any are of the country, “what he is really saying is these companies that control many local markets want to become a larger company that controls the national market,” Franken said.
Franken questioned whether a bigger Comcast would have the incentive to add more products, and cited some of its executives’ bullish outlook on its revenues to Wall Street analysts given its ability to bundle services.
He even sparred with Cohen over the nature of an FCC fine imposed on Comcast for promoting its bundling packages but obscuring its availability of standalone broadband service. - Variety, 4/9/14
And Franken isn't just speaking on behalf of his constituents on this issue:
http://consumerist.com/...
“That speaks volumes about how anti-competitive this is,” said Franken. “You know why they don’t speak out? They come to my office and say, ‘This is off the record.’ Then they talk about how it’s going to be anti-competitive, but… They’re afraid of retaliation. Doesn’t that tell you everything you need to know?”
Franken says these companies are dependent on Comcast to reach a customer base that is now around 20 million but could swell to more than 30 million if the TWC merger is approved. Additionally, Comcast will control the lion’s share of broadband-to-the-home, which more and more content providers rely on to reach consumers.
“You can encourage them” to speak out, explains the senator, “but they think they are committing business suicide… that they’ll be retaliated against.” - The Consumerist, 4/14/14
Given Franken's past, it's understandable why he's passionate about this:
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Mr. Franken, who also opposed the unsuccessful merger of AT&T and T-Mobile, said his interest in the issue was about “trying to protect consumers in Minnesota, trying to protect people whose experience with Comcast has not been good.” He added that when he asked his constituents to weigh in, he received over 100,000 replies, overwhelmingly opposed to the deal and talking about “how lousy the customer service was.”
But the issue is also one Mr. Franken knows intimately from his time in the entertainment industry. He recalled working in television when the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules, which reined in the power of the networks, were relaxed and ultimately overturned in the 1990s. That allowed networks to own the television they broadcast in prime time, which Mr. Franken said “killed independent production.”
“The networks swore up and down that they would not favor their own shows because they said, ‘We want the best ratings,’ ” he said in a phone interview. “That was completely false.”
“LateLine,” a sitcom he helped create, was produced by Paramount, a company that NBC did not own, and as a result NBC did not give it a choice slot, in Mr. Franken’s view. “Our time slot was not conducive to getting many eyeballs to our show,” he said.
During his performing career, Mr. Franken acquired a reputation for tilting heavily against the establishment — and that included the government, the network he worked for and even his own show.
In 1980 he took on Fred Silverman, then the NBC chief executive, in a commentary on the Weekend Update segment, calling him “a lame-o” for wrecking the network. Mr. Silverman was reportedly enraged by the sketch.
In another well-remembered segment from 1980, he mocked the show’s producers and essentially argued for “S.N.L.” to be canceled — but not until a week later, after he had a chance to be the host. (Because of a writers’ strike, he never was.)
He was known for leading the effort to make sure the writers were paid for every type of replay of “S.N.L.” or the sketches they had written. A colleague from the early years of the show, who asked not to identified because he’d become estranged from Mr. Franken, said that Mr. Franken had been originally hired as a writer at a less than subsistence salary, “and he never forgot that.”
Mr. Franken’s deep understanding of — and near obsession with — telecommunications mergers has impressed even those involved in antitrust debates. Albert A. Foer, president of the American Antitrust Institute, which opposes mergers, still recalls a speech Mr. Franken, who is not a lawyer, gave on the subject to the American Bar Association two years ago, calling it “beautiful.” - New York Times, 4/11/14
For a while now, Franken has been grilling the Comcast folks about this merger:
http://consumerist.com/...
While Comcast has financial ties to numerous important members of the House and Senate, there are a few folks on Capitol Hill who have no problem speaking out against the cable company’s plan to expand its domination of the pay-TV and Internet business by acquiring Time Warner Cable and its millions of customers. Sen. Al Franken has already expressed concern about the merger, but yesterday he made his position on the matter very clear.
During yesterday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on satellite TV legislation, the Minnesota senator took a moment to discuss the potential impact that a merged Comcast/TWC would have.
“I believe that the cable industry could become even more powerful if Comcast is allowed to acquire Time Warner Cable,” said Franken, who rose to fame working for NBC, the network now owned by Comcast. “I strongly oppose this acquisition, and it’s a good reminder that consumers need more competition from satellite TV.”
He later added, “I believe it’s a terrible deal for consumers.” - Consumerist, 3/27/14
Franken's not alone in this:
http://www.thewrap.com/...
Franken also pressed representatives from consumer group Public Knowledge about the Comcast deal, along with Ellen Stutzman, Director of Research and Public Policy for WGA-W.
“We think the FCC should reject the deal,” Stutzman said. “It is not in the public interest. It is anticompetitive. It is a bad deal for content creators as well as consumers.
She went onto say that “Comcast is already the largest cable and internet service provider. Allowing them to get bigger will make them too powerful of a content gatekeeper.”
Stutzman suggested that the deal would give Comcast the clout to reduce affiliate fees that cable and TV networks use to invest in content, while giving the company control of a third of the broadband Internet market.
“[The internet] is where all the new competition is coming from,” she said. “We fear they will use their power to steer away from new providers like amazon and Netflix to favor their own content.”
Fellow Minnesota Democrat Sen. Amy Klobuchar also had questions about the Comcast deal's impact, though she didn't take as strong a stance as Franken. - 3/26/14
Franken has quite a few reasons to be so heavily against this merger:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
But in a letter this week to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, Franken said Comcast has “a history of breaching its legal obligations to consumers," including pledges the company made to win regulatory approval for its 2011 merger with NBC Universal, the television and movie production company.
As one example, Franken cited Comcast's settlement with the FCC in 2012 after the company failed to aggressively market its $50-a-month standalone Internet service, a condition of the NBC Universal merger. The FCC imposed that condition to ensure the company did not force customers to buy bundled services if they only wanted high-speed Internet.
Franken also alleged Comcast violated net neutrality rules the company was required to follow as part of the NBC Universal deal. Net neutrality rules are meant to prevent Internet providers like Comcast from discriminating against certain Internet content, like charging to stream some online services faster than others.
In 2012, the consumer group Public Knowledge filed a petition with the FCC alleging Comcast violated those rules when the company introduced customer data caps and then said use of its online video service, Xfinity TV On Demand, would not count toward those caps.
The FCC has not ruled on the consumer group’s petition. In January, a federal appeals court overturned net neutrality rules.
Comcast later suspended data caps, but has resumed testing a tiered system that charges customers in some markets more for higher broadband use.
“Recent history, including Comcast’s adherence to the legal obligations it owes the public, should be taken into account when deciding whether to permit further consolidation in the cable and broadband networks,” Franken wrote. - Huffington Post, 2/28/14
Franken also made this argument at the hearing:
http://articles.philly.com/...
There was a certain irony watching Franken, a longtime writer and performer on NBC's Saturday Night Live and the Senate's only official recovering comedian, grill Cohen about the sale. NBCUniversal is one of Comcast's holdings. Franken observed that, in seeking approval to acquire NBCUniversal a few years ago, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts cited "robust competition" with Time Warner Cable. Yet now, in the TWC acquisition, Comcast dismissed any competition between the companies because they dominate different geographic markets. Franken said, "You can't have it both ways."
I am sorry to report that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) spent most of his apportioned time complaining about personal experiences as a DirecTV consumer during bad weather, and directly questioned Cohen about switching to Comcast. I am not making this up.
Time Warner Cable executive vice president Arthur Minson barely spoke, perhaps not wishing to jeopardize the $27 million he will collect if the merger is approved after less than a year in the job. Chump change. CEO Rob Marcus stands to collect almost $80 million after only a few months in his position. Minson defended the payouts: "For transactions this complex, I would think you would find they are in line." Sen. Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.) countered, "You may find not all consumers agree." If any.
Diplomatic and openly wooing opponents who appeared on the panel, Cohen admitted Comcast's "call services of excellence" - wherever they may be between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. - are not exactly Comcastic. Cohen said, "It bothers us that we have trouble delivering real high-quality service on a consistent basis."
While it wouldn't be wise to bet against Comcast, additional congressional hearings are scheduled, and the merger will be reviewed by both the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department. A coalition of advocacy groups collected the names of 400,000 consumers urging regulators to reject the deal.
"Comcast is big. It is good" at courting Washington, said Michael Weisberg, vice president of Public Knowledge. "But it is not perfect." Since the merger's announcement, Comcast has "gotten a lot more pushback than anticipated." - Philadelphia Inquirer, 4/14/14
And Franken's has helped keep the public outspoken about this merger:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Judging by the hearing, the Senate wasn't buying what Comcast was selling -- and neither is the public. On the same day Comcast submitted its FCC application explaining why the deal was supposedly in the public interest, Comcast was voted the "Worst Company in America" in a public poll at the Consumerist.
At the same time, 50 public interest organizations delivered a letter to the FCC and
Justice Department saying that approval of this merger would be "unthinkable." When was the last time MoveOn, Demand Progress and the National Organization for Women agreed with the American Family Association, Tea Party Nation and the U.S. Business and Industry Council? They all think a bigger Comcast is bad for America.
The merger review is expected to stretch toward the end of this year, and as more and more details about the dangers of this deal emerge, you can expect the chorus of protest to grow even louder.
On the day of the Senate hearing, Free Press, along with Common Cause, Consumers Union, Daily Kos, Demand Progress and Working Families, announced that in the month since the merger was announced more than 400,000 people had signed petitions calling on the FCC and Justice Department to block the deal. Another 200,000 have signed petitions distributed by Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine).
This week kicked off what will be a long fight against this merger. Comcast has already deployed an army of lobbyists in Washington -- more than a hundred by Sen. Franken's count. Comcast spent almost $20 million in lobbying last year alone (only the military contractor Northrop Grumman spent more).
Will an outraged public be able to counteract Comcast's lobbying onslaught? Can organized people beat organized money?
Well, it's the only thing that ever has. - Huffington Post, 4/10/14
Franken elaborated some more on this issue:
While Comcast's system spinoffs will keep it under the FCC's former 30% national cap on subs, Franken suggested the relevant number was its percentage of broadband subs, plus the 12% or 13% of programming. "The original 30% was about one sector, cable TV. It is very different when you have all of these pieces that you are putting together and that you can leverage."
Asked how he would increase competition in the cable marketplace, Franken said the first thing would be not to allow the merger, though he conceded it was up to the FCC and Justice, not him. But, he said: "That is where I would start."
Franken grilled Cohen during the hearing, but suggested in the interview that it was not personal but instead part of his job and duty to his constituents, many of whom had raised objections to the deal. "Mr. Cohen seems like a really smart guy. He's a really great guy, I'm sure, and I can say about him that he earns, sort of, what he gets. But my job was to ask him tough questions." - Broadcasting & Cable, 4/11/14
Of course Comcast does have it's influence on the Hill:
http://sunlightfoundation.com/...
The Senate will weigh in on the proposed Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger during Wednesday’s Judiciary Committee hearing, the first congressional examination of how the merger would impact consumers. The number one and number two cable providers in the country are also big-time on the influence circuit, giving upwards of a combined $42.4 million to various politicians and groups since 1989.
The Sunlight Foundation’s Influence Explorer tool also shows that the two companies have spent a combined $143.5 million lobbying Congress since 1989 on issues including telecommunications, technology, taxes and copyright.
President Barack Obama benefitted the most, by far, from Comcast, whose employees and their family members contributed more than $537,800. Two Texans – Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst – are the top recipients of contributions from Time Warner Cable, receiving $185,000 and $170,000, respectively.
David L. Cohen, Comcast’s executive vice president, and Arthur T. Minson Jr., Time Warner’s executive vice president and CFO, are both slated to testify during the hearing. Federal Election Commission disclosures show that Minson is a modest donor; in 2007 and 2008, he gave $1,960 to the National Cable and Telecommunications PAC and $2,000 to Time Warner’s PAC.
Cohen, however, throws much more of his own money into politics. He bundled contributions for Obama and gives significantly to other Democrats, especially in his home state of Pennsylvania. Cohen served as Ed Rendell’s chief of staff when the Democratic pol was mayor of Philadelphia in the mid ’90s. Cohen contributed $50,000 to Rendell's successful 2002 campaign for governor. In the wake of last October's government shutdown, Cohen hosted a fundraiser at his home, attended by Obama and Sens. Bob Casey, D-Pa., and Michael Bennet, D-Colo., for the the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the organization responsible for getting Democrats elected to the Senate. Cohen claimed that the event raised $1 million. - Sunlight Foundation, 4/9/14
And yes, Comcast has donated to Franken's campaign before in the past:
http://arstechnica.com/...
Anti-Comcast Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) isn't listed as having received anything from Comcast's PAC, but that's apparently because the database didn't take into account money collected by Franken's recount fund from when he needed a vote recount to get elected to the Senate. Franken and Comcast spokespeople confirmed to Ars that a Comcast PAC did give $5,000 to Franken's recount fund in 2009. A Los Angeles Times story from 2010 also mentions the donation.
The LA Times story notes that Franken was using his opposition to the Comcast/NBC deal to raise more campaign funds. A Franken spokesperson told the newspaper at the time that there were no plans to return the donation, saying, "He campaigned pretty clearly that he was going to stand up to special interests."
The Comcast donation came through on Oct. 30, 2009, after the election recount was settled but while Franken was still paying off campaign debt. Comcast had previously given to Franken's opponent, Republican Norm Coleman.
Separately from Comcast's PAC, Franken has received $15,050 from Comcast employees since 2009. His popularity with Comcast's overlords have obviously gone downhill since the recount fund donation, though. He argued yesterday that the Comcast/TWC merger would stifle competition and lead to higher prices and worse service for consumers. - Ars Technia, 4/10/14
But Franken isn't denying this and isn't letting their money influence him:
http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/...
STELTER: I was rattling off some examples on the introduction of Comcast donations to lawmakers. It seems very difficult to believe it doesn't have some effect on the response that Comcast is getting now from Washington.
Do you worry about that? Do you worry, for example, that one of the former FCC commissioners now works for Comcast, that we see that kind of coziness between government and business in this case, and that it may cause the deal to win approval?
FRANKEN: I don't like this revolving door. I don’t like this revolving door between regulators and Comcast. I thought that was kind of tacky that one of the FCC commissioners, I think just four months after they approved the Comcast/NBC deal, went over to work a high-paying job at Comcast. I just don't like that.
STELTER: And the money specifically, do you think it influences your colleagues on Capitol Hill?
FRANKEN: You know, I think Comcast does give money to people who support them, not necessarily to buy their support, but - yes, I really don't like the role of money in politics, and I think it's gotten worse and worse and worse. I think Citizens United was a very disturbing pernicious ruling. I think this latest McCutcheon ruling was awful.
So, you know, it's just giving more power to those who have money.
STELTER: And Comcast would say, you know, Senator Franken used dozen fundraising appeals in the past, when NBC proposed merger was happening. What do you say to that?
FRANKEN: Guilty as charged. I mean, I basically said I’m against this, I have some experience here. You know, as I said, I got over 100,000 people writing me saying, don't allow this to happen. - CNN, 4/13/14
And Franken even made this argument about Comcast and Time Warner:
http://arstechnica.com/...
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing today, Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) said that Comcast made a very different argument in order to secure approval of its 2011 purchase of NBCUniversal. During a hearing in 2010, Comcast argued that competition from Time Warner would prevent it from taking unfair advantage of increased ownership of television content. Franken said:
Comcast has argued that there's nothing to worry about here because it doesn't compete with Time Warner Cable in any ZIP code… When Comcast wanted to acquire NBCUniversal, Comcast's CEO told this committee not to worry about it because there were still other robust distributors, and he specifically named Time Warner Cable, which would prevent Comcast from setting anti-competitive prices for Comcast content.
The point was that Comcast couldn't get away with that sort of behavior because distributors including Time Warner Cable wouldn't stand for it, and they could go to the FCC and complain about it, too. Later in the hearing, Comcast's CEO also told us, 'We are not getting any larger in cable distribution here.' Well, if this deal goes through, Comcast will become larger in cable distribution, and if this deal goes through, Comcast never again will have to negotiate with Time Warner Cable when it comes to setting prices for NBC content. And NBC content, everyone should remember, is 20-some networks.
Comcast can't have it both ways. It can't say that the existence of competition among distributors including Time Warner Cable was a reason to approve the NBC deal in 2010 and then turn around a few years later and say that the absence of competition with Time Warner Cable is a reason to approve this deal.
According to a transcript of that February 2010 hearing, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts was asked by Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI), "Won't Comcast have the incentive to raise its rivals' costs by raising the cost of NBC programming if this merger is completed?"
Roberts responded, "There are robust distributors—DirecTV, Dish Network, Time Warner, Ms. [Colleen] Abdoulah's company [telecom provider WideOpenWest, or WOW]—all negotiating with other programmers. There is a very defined marketplace and a third party to adjudicate whether somebody is playing games, as was the suggestion perhaps that you would do, so you would overcharge. That would not be available to do, the way I understand how the process has worked, and that is not the intention."
In that same hearing, Roberts said, "We are not getting any larger in cable distribution here with this because NBC is not in our business, and we are not really in their business."
Time Warner Cable was spun off as a separate company from Time Warner in 2009. Roberts may have been referring to Time Warner itself rather than Time Warner Cable—although the comparison to DirecTV and Dish suggests he was referring to TWC. Comcast Executive VP David Cohen testified at today's hearing and did not dispute Franken's description of the 2010 hearing. - Ars Technica, 4/9/14
So what can we expect to happen from the hearing and what will come of it?
http://www.cnet.com/...
Comcast stock was trading up 1.5 percent, or 73 cents, at $49.58. Time Warner stock was trading 1.2 percent higher, or $1.67, at $137.59.
Since Congress is largely toothless in the decision-making of this deal, Wednesday's hearing allowed politicians and interested parties to make the cues to the regulators that will ultimately decide the merger's fate. Most experts believe Comcast's deal will eventually be approved; the uncertainty around the deal is what conditions the Federal Communications Commission or Justice Department will impose on the cable giants to grant their approval.
Tuesday, the companies filed what's known as a joint application and public interest statement with the Federal Communications Commission, after last week filing a notification with the US Department of Justice, which will begin the antitrust review of the merger.
The deal has sparked strong opposition from some consumer groups and other critics, who say that a combined Comcast and Time Warner Cable would be too powerful. Comcast is the largest cable operator in the nation and Time Warner Cable is the second largest. But Comcast maintains that the two companies do not overlap directly in any market for broadband or video services, and their combination will strengthen consumers' service options. - CNET, 4/9/14
I applaud Senator Franken for his work on this issue. Since I haven't written about Franken in a while, I also want to applaud him on this issue:
http://www.startribune.com/...
Democratic U.S. Sen. Al Franken is resurrecting his proposal to pay for hot school lunches for students who get reduced-priced meals.
“We should really be committed to making sure kids don’t go hungry at school,” Franken said in an interview with the Star Tribune. "It's just wrong."
Franken had lunch Monday with students at Meadow Lake Elementary School in New Hope, saying research is clear that students learn better when they are well nourished.
A member of the Senate Education Committee, Franken introduced the proposal in 2009 and again in 2010, but the measures never became law.
Right now, students whose parents make between 130 percent and 185 percent of the federal poverty lines qualify for reduced-priced lunches of 40 cents per meal. Under the proposal, the taxpayers would pick up the tab for those lunches. - Star Tribune, 3/17/14
And Franken's also kept up his fight for consumers' privacy:
http://inthecapital.streetwise.co/...
Senator Al Franken (D-MN) wants to keep stalkers from using mobile apps to find their victims. Abusing smartphone apps to stalk and find people is a real privacy problem, and that's why Franken has put forward a bill on location privacy, the second time he's introduced that kind of legislation.
The bill, called the Location Privacy Protection Act of 2014, will start in the Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, which Franken chairs. If made into law, it would stop the creation of more stalking apps and require companies to get explicit permission before collecting location data and before sharing it with anyone else.
"Tens of millions of Americans have smartphones now," Franken said in a release. "And the companies that make the software on your phone, including apps, can track your location at any time. I believe that Americans have the right to control who can collect their location, and whether or not it can be given to third parties. But right now, companies – some legitimate, some not—are collecting your location and giving it to whomever they want."
More than 25,000 American adults are victims of GPS stalking every year according to the - In The Capital, 3/28/14
And here's something to look forward to:
http://www.minnpost.com/...
We're honored to have the man President Barack Obama calls the "second-funniest senator in Minnesota," Al Franken, join us once again for MinnRoast on April 25. Franken has kept a straight face as our junior senator and, as acknowledged in the clip below, MinnRoast is the only time of the year he allows himself to be funny.
MinnRoast 2014 is our seventh annual song-and-skit variety show featuring your favorite local politicians, journalists, and media types. All proceeds support MinnPost, your online source for local, high-quality, independent news coverage for Minnesota.
Sen. Franken will be joined this year by comedienne Lizz Winstead, Gov. Mark Dayton, Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges, Tesfa Wondemagegnehu & VocalEssence, K-TWIN's Brian "B.T." Turner, former state Sen. Amy Koch and more. - MinnPost, 3/20/14
And here's something else that's funny:
http://www.usnews.com/...
Back before he was Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., comedian Al Franken was the roaster-in-chief at the 1996 White House Correspondents' Dinner. The commander-in-chief, President Bill Clinton, was going to let Franken off easy, according to new documents released Friday by the National Archives.
A joke aimed at Franken had been scratched out on Clinton’s final draft, but the president delivered it anyway. “I feel a certain kinship with Al Franken. We both had a rough 1994,” the joke went. “I had the midterm elections and he had ‘Stuart Saves His Family.’ But we’ve both rebounded pretty well.”
(“Stuart Saves His Family” was a full-length failure inspired by Franken’s character, Stuart Smalley, on “Saturday Night Live.”)
“He asked me to tell that,” Clinton noted from the podium.
Other changes Clinton made between document and delivery included the removal of a Pat Buchanan joke. The president also refused to say Rush Limbaugh’s name, even though it was part of the gag. Instead, he opted to say that Franken had written a book titled, “What’s-his-name Is a Big Fat Idiot.” - U.S. News, 3/28/14
But of course Franken is taking his re-election bid seriously:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Franken spent four decades building a comedic franchise across the popular culture — “Saturday Night Live” writer and actor; best-selling political satirist; partisan radio blowhard. He has spent the past five years shedding his clown costume, realizing, practically from Day One, that it was a liability for a senator. Since taking his seat in the summer of 2009, he has tamped down his scorn for Republicans, dialed back the irony and hyperbole, and strived to fit in with his fellow gentlemen and ladies in the august chamber.
There, Franken, his hair going pewter at 62, has seemed all business; that’s true in this conference room in St. Paul, too. Soon he’s talking about propane “flaring” and “additional fractionation” and a key Canadian pipeline. He habitually props his jaw on his fist and leans forward, listening — and, his staffers say — fully absorbing the most granular details so he can talk knowledgably about complex matters.
“We had a lot of people hit — a lot of people hit hard,” Franken says of the propane shortage. “A lot of businesses, a lot of families, a lot of people in agriculture. And we don’t want it to happen again.”
Then, like all good politicians, he makes a promise. “I want to take back to Washington what I’m hearing from all of you.”
Later, outside the room, an official from the Salvation Army, which supplied emergency relief to thousands of households without heat this winter, lauds Franken.
“It isn’t grandstanding,” says Mike McGlone, who has met with him a few times. “He’s working all the time. He is a mature adult who takes his job seriously.” - Washington Post, 3/19/14
So is Senator Elizabeth Warren (D. MA):
http://www.masslive.com/...
Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts whipped up the crowds at a campaign event for Sen. Al Franken and helped Minnesota Democrats raise money for the upcoming campaign season at two events over the weekend.
Franken's re-election campaign was making a pitch for volunteers at Macalester College in St. Paul on Saturday, and Warren is popular with the Democratic base. She stressed issues such as economic inequality, global warming and unions, Minnesota Public Radio reported.
"I'm not going to lean back; I'm not going to whimper about what the Republicans are up to; I'm not going to whine about what they're doing in Washington. I'm going to fight back. And when I fight back, I want Al Franken beside me in this fight all the way," Warren said. - AP, 3/30/14
But Franken should be alright for re-election for a few reasons. His popularity of course but also because the Tea Party isn't crazy about his potential opponent:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
In a video obtained by The Huffington Post of a February Minnesota Tea Party Alliance event, leader Jack Rogers railed against financial executive Mike McFadden for avoiding them. McFadden announced in May 2013 that he would run against incumbent Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.).
"Mike McFadden doesn’t have the time to come and speak to any one of the seven groups or any of the rallies?" Rogers said. "What will you tell him at endorsement time? Go! To!..."
As Rogers trailed off, the audience answered with "Hell."
"Oh I wasn't going to use that word, no, no, 'Go away'" Rogers continued. "Do not treat us like fireflies stuffed in a jar with our lights out. The tea party has opened the jar, the flies are out and we're reuniting."
In a Feb. 14 podcast, titled "Taking the Gloves Off," the alliance's other leader, Jake Duesenberg, detailed how McFadden's campaign had allegedly tried to silence tea party activists.
"So I hit up social media and I said 'Mike McFadden is dodging the tea party — he has no interest,' Duesenberg said. "And so, all of a sudden, I started getting some phone calls and emails and it was from both his campaign and people who I think are sympathetic to his campaign saying that, 'He’s not dodging you guys, basically Jake you’re an idiot, you don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Yeah right. Okay listen. I’ve been in this game long enough to know when I am being manipulated, when I am being deceived by people."
Rogers added later in the podcast that, in his opinion, McFadden is "putting in time in DC but not in Minnesota and it’s frightening." - Huffington Post, 3/6/14
And McFadden will have some serious questions to answer:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Republican financial executive Mike McFadden, who hopes to challenge Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) in November, avoided giving specific answers about his stance on a slew of key issues at a press conference Thursday.
McFadden centered his comments on his plans to cut wasteful federal government spending, but he avoided giving yes or no responses when reporters began asking him questions.
The candidate wouldn't say whether he would have preferred Minnesota use the federal health care exchange rather than a state-based one, whether he would have voted to block debate in the Senate over the Paycheck Fairness Act, whether he supports personhood legislation that could ban some forms of birth control, or whether he supports a state-based effort to increase Minnesota's minimum wage to $9.50 an hour.
He called the vote concerning gender-based pay discrimination an election-year trick and said personhood legislation, which seeks to give fetuses the same rights as people, is a "polarizing" issue that he wouldn't focus on. When asked about the minimum wage, he said it was "the wrong question."
“What I think is really important with politicians and with leaders [is] you understand their overriding philosophies — how do they make decisions?” McFadden told reporters. “And so I’ve been very specific in this campaign as to how I make decisions and it begins with my view of government, my philosophy of government." - Huffington Post, 4/10/14
And any polling showing Franken in trouble is most likely wrong:
http://www.slate.com/...
Earlier this week, the Koch-allied group American Encore released a poll of Minnesota that found Sen. Al Franken with a wan 40 percent approval rating. No credible candidate has jumped into the race against Franken, but the poll suggested to anyone looking that, hey, maybe, this is the year to go for it. Today, Harper Polling released a study of Oregon that found Gov. John Kitzhaber struggling against an opponent and Sen. Jeff Merkley up only 7 points on a conservative state legislator. If you've been paying attention, you may be reminded of the poll the NRSC commissioned after Colorado Rep. Cory Gardner thought he might run for Senate. The poll gave him a shot—he jumped in.
The pollsters are all taking advantage of something known as the "incumbent rule," a trope that Nate Silver really should deal with at some point. As the theory goes, an incumbent "polling under 50 percent" is in danger because potentially 50.1 percent (or more) of the electorate is ready to make a switch. The theory's not crazy, but it doesn't take into account different sorts of polling, question ordering, name recognition, or other factors.
That means it's often wrong. Here are just some of the senators who polled below 50 percent at this point in 2012: Sherrod Brown, Jon Tester, Bob Casey, Dean Heller, Debbie Stabenow, Bob Menendez, Claire McCaskill. The last of them got a famously awful opponent (Todd Akin), but Brown, Tester, and Heller all got the opponents that the national parties wanted, and Menendez and Stabenow ran against credible current or former legislators. - Slate, 4/4/14
But if you want to donate and get involved with Franken's re-election campaign, you can do so here:
http://www.alfranken.com/...