FreePress (http://www.freepress.net/) is a nonpartisan organization building a nationwide movement for media that serve the public interest.
Today FreePress reports this:
Late last week a report cast serious doubt on whether the Justice Department will approve Comcast’s bid to take over Time Warner Cable. With the deal reportedly on the ropes, Comcast is going to do everything it can to push back and get what it wants. It’s more important than ever to speak out and make sure that regulators stay strong in the face of pressure from Comcast.
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See: “
U.S. Antitrust Lawyers Said Leaning Against Comcast Deal” Bloomberg, April 17, 2015
Please comment opposing a combined Comcast/Time Warner Cable directly to the FCC using the FCC Electronic Comment Filing System (here) or Sign this FreePress petition.
April 21, 2015 letter to Atty. Gen. Holder and FCC Chair Wheeler from Sen's. Franken, Sanders, Markey, Wyden, Warren, Blumenthal: DoJ and FCC, reject the merger.
The Tide Is Turning Against Comcast’s Proposal To Buy Time Warner Cable 04-20-2015 by Sen. Al Franken (@alfranken)
April 21, 2015 NATIONAL JOURNAL: SENATE DEMOCRATS PRESS REGULATORS TO KILL COMCAST DEAL Sen. Al Franken is leading the crusade against Comcast’s purchase of Time Warner as the government nears a decision.
A Background update is below:
Bureau Name: Media Bureau (MB) [MB regulates AM, FM radio and television broadcast stations, as well as cable television and satellite services]. Subject: Applications of Comcast Corporation and Time Warner Cable Inc. for Consent to Assign or Transfer Control of Licenses and Applications Prepared By: Robin.Minor Date Created: 04/04/2014 Status: Open Total Filings: 100,818 Filings in last 30 days: 153
Here is a significant letter posted April 20, 2015:
April 17, 2015
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,
(signed by representatives of) belN Sports, Common Cause, Benton Foundation, Cogent Communications, Color of Change, Consumer Federation of America (CFA), Courage Campaign, DISH Network, Free Press, COMPTEL, Consumer Action, Computer & Communications Industry Association, Consumers Union, Demand Progress, Engine, Future of Music Coalition, The Greenlining Institute, Jesse Miranda Center for Hispanic Leadership, Los Angeles Latino Chamber of Commerce, National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture, New America's Open Technology Institute, OpenMedia, Presente, ITIA, LPTV Coalition, Media Alliance, National Asian American Coalition, NTCA - The Rural Broadband Association, Parents Television Council, Public Knowledge, Rural Broadband Alliance, TURN, Writers Guild of America East AFL-CIO, Zee Network, Sports Fans Coalition, WeatherNation, Writers Guild of America West
CC: Commissioner Mignon Clyburn; Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel; Commissioner Ajit Pai; Commissioner Michael O'Rielly
If you comment directly to the FCC using the
FCC Electronic Comment Filing System (here), write & save your comment as a note or document on your desktop, then on the FCC page where it says "Choose File", make the note from your desktop an attachment. Then Submit. Then delete your note from your desktop. This is because you cannot just type your comment directly onto the FCC page. go figure....
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If your interest is economics, here are the notes on the proposed merger from the FCC's recent ECONOMIC ANALYSIS WORKSHOP:
Redacted for Public Inspection; MB Docket No. 14-57 Before the Federal Communications Commission. United States of America; FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION; Proposed Comcast-Time Warner Cable- Charter Transaction ECONOMIC ANALYSIS WORKSHOP; Friday January 30, 2015. The Economic Analysis Workshop met in the Federal Communications Commission, Commission Meeting Room, 445 12th Street SW, Washington, D.C.
TABLE of C O N T E N T S ......... (page number)
Page Opening Remarks ........................................... 4
Session I: Interconnection ....................................... 7
Break
Session II: Online Video Distribution ...................... 107
Break
Session III: Program Access, Program Carriage & Other Programming Issues ...... 198
Break Session IV: Benchmarking, Efficiencies, and Other Issues ...... 269
No recording of any kind is allowed during the sessions. And everyone in this room is cleared to hear highly confidential information. But you should remember that highly confidential information will be shared within this room. And then it has to be treated as highly confidential information.
I want to thank all of the economists from both sides of the issue for coming today. Many of them submitted questions to us in advance. We used some of them, we didn't use some of them. But thank you very much for submitting questions in advance.
…any one of these questions we could spend a half hour on. And we've got 15 or 20 topics we want to go through at each of these sessions.
…please panelists, try and keep your answers short and succinct.
………. –(continues per above Table of Contents)– ……….
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