The proposed merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable would be extremely harmful to consumers and the federal government should oppose it.
That’s the opinion of Consumers Union, the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports.
“Given the poor track record of these two cable and Internet giants and the power they would wield as a combined company, this merger should be flatly rejected,” Consumers Union’s telecommunications policy counsel Delara Derakhshani and senior policy counsel George Slover said in a letter to House Judiciary Committee members before a hearing last week.
A combined Comcast/Time Warner Cable would control nearly two-thirds of the nation’s cable TV service, nearly 40 percent of its Internet broadband service, and half of its video-voice-Internet “triple-play” service – far exceeding the next-closest competitor in any of those categories.
“Consumers are already dissatisfied with the service they receive from these two companies, and there is little reason to believe that combining them will improve the situation,” Consumers Union wrote.
In a customer satisfaction survey by Consumer Reports, Comcast and Time Warner Cable were among the lowest-ranked companies in customer satisfaction for TV service.
Both companies received poor marks for value received for the money, as well as for phone and online customer support.
“Combining these two companies would give the merged entity an even larger national presence, more market power, and less incentive to address consumers’ concerns,” the letter said.
“Comcast claims that the merger should not raise concerns with either the Federal Communications Commission or the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, because the two companies do not currently compete in each other’s geographical territories,” Consumers Union wrote. “But this overlooks important ways in which the combined companies’ market power would be further increased, to the detriment of competition, consumers, and programming diversity and innovation, now and for years to come.”
The letter is available online here.
