Comcast's Own History Is Best Argument Against Time Warner Deal

[Commentary] A look at how Comcast has exercised the power it already wields, should give any fair-minded regulator pause when considering the proposed purchase of Time Warner Cable.

A Comcast-Time Warner Cable deal would wipe out any notion of future competition within the broadband industry. You could argue that consumers don’t have meaningful choice as it is, since cable companies long ago conspired to stay out of each others’ markets, a fact that Comcast, without any irony, points to in favor of a merger.

But this proposed deal is not simply about one huge cable company buying another. Comcast-owned NBC stands apart, however, as in both Olympics it has restricted access to these live streams to pay TV subscribers whose bundle includes CNBC and MSNBC, channels also owned by Comcast. No cable bill, no streaming. Even more disconcertingly, Comcast (along with Time Warner Cable) has played an active role in the push to ban municipalities from offering broadband access.

Twenty states currently have cable industry drafted laws that place significant restrictions on both public initiatives and public/private partnerships to create broadband alternatives. These bills have the aim of preventing the spread of projects like Google Fiber, which promise consumers far greater Internet speeds, unbundled from TV service, at reasonable cost. The recent, precedent-setting peering agreement in which Netflix is now paying Comcast directly for improved delivery of its streaming video to customers, is a technical bypass of net neutrality rules that effectively renders them irrelevant. With the reach and power Comcast already enjoys, customers are paying escalating prices for services that can charitably be described as mediocre.