Sept. 27, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning sent a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Sept. 24 to investigate Comcast to review the outcomes that have followed the Comcast-NBC merger. Here follows some excerpts:
“Comcast/NBCU merger remains far more dangerous to Comcast’s distribution rivals than the AT&T/Time Warner combination is to AT&T’s distribution… Comcast/NBCU programming is significantly more important to consumers than is Time Warner’s programming. While the national programming of both cable distributors may be similar, Comcast/NBCU owns many widely considered “must-have” television broadcast stations and regional sports networks (RSNs). Time Warner, by contrast, owns no broadcast stations or RSNs. In the markets where Comcast owns these local stations and RSNs, Comcast’s market share is on average greater than 50%, compared to AT&T/Time Warner national market share which is about 25%. Comcast would profit much more from acquiring a rival’s subscriber than AT&T/Time Warner because Comcast can sell all new customers video and wireline broadband. AT&T/Time Warner only has that capability in limited areas…
“[I]t is imperative these issues are not only raised at your upcoming hearing, but discussed at length in order to open an investigation into the past practices and future operation of Comcast/NBCU. Then, upon reviewing the findings of such an investigation, conditions should be put in place that will enforce anti-competitive rules and regulations. At the very least, to protect consumers and rivals, Comcast/NBCU should be subjected to the same arbitration commitment as AT&T/Time Warner.”
Attachments:
Full Letter to House Energy and Commerce Committee, Sept. 27, 2018 at https://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/HouseEnergyAndCommerceLetter-Comcast-9-24-18.pdf
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