Once again, the FCC has paused the 180-day clocks to review the two pending mega-mergers on its to-do list: Comcast’s acquisition of Time Warner Cable, and the marriage of AT&T to DirecTV. This time, the FCC is saying it can’t go forward with the review of these deals until a court determines whether interested parties should be granted limited access to confidential information about the involved companies. [More]
murders and executions
Could Comcast Try To Buy Netflix Or T-Mobile If Time Warner Cable Deal Fails?
By 3.6.15
After more than a year of stop-start-stop regulatory review, the FCC and Justice Dept. are currently in the final stretch of deciding whether to approve, block, or put conditions on the mega-merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable. With even some formerly optimistic industry analysts now having their doubts about the deal’s success, it’s time to consider what Kabletown might do if the acquisition falls through. [More]
What We Know About AT&T/DirecTV’s Proposed Wireless Broadband Service
By 3.3.15
Last fall, an AT&T exec claimed that if his company was allowed to merge with DirecTV it could deploy some sort of wireless data service that delivered around 15Mbps to rural customers, but since then there has been very little talk of what this service would actually look like or how and where it would be deployed. But a dig through regulatory filings on the merger turns up a little more info. [More]
Dish: Comcast Could Still Use Its Size To Block Streaming Content
By 3.3.15
The FCC’s recently approved net neutrality rules will prohibit all Internet service providers from blocking any legal content from being sent or received by their users. But when an ISP also controls the nation’s largest pay-TV audience, perhaps it could use that leverage to prevent certain content from ever going online in the first place. [More]
Judges Question FCC’s Need To Share What Comcast & DirecTV Pay To Broadcasters
By 2.20.15
Those following the merger of Comcast with Time Warner Cable and AT&T’s acquisition of DirecTV may remember that the FCC had hoped to make some of the cable companies’ confidential contract information available to parties with a direct interest in these deals. In November, a federal appeals court preliminarily sided with the broadcasters and temporarily blocked the FCC from sharing this info, and this morning the court heard arguments from both sides on whether or not these contracts should be kept under lock and key for good. [More]
Comcast Doesn’t Want to Improve its ‘Internet Essentials’ Program for Low-Income Consumers
By 2.16.15
With Comcast’s $45 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable nearing the finish line, you’d think the company would be willing to do something as insignificant as make promises to improve its broadband program for low-income users. You’d be wrong. [More]
5 Empty Promises Comcast Has Made About Time Warner Cable Merger & One Promise They Won’t Make
By 2.11.15
It’s been a year since two-time Worst Company In America winner Comcast confirmed it would spend $45 billion to acquire another much-loathed pay-TV provider, Time Warner Cable. And while we all wait for the FCC and Justice Dept. to finish kicking the tires and looking under the hood of this deal, what better time to review some of the promises Comcast has made about the post-merger pro-consumer wonderland we’ll all enjoy. [More]
Two Big Reasons The New Broadband Standard Is Bad News For The Comcast Merger
By 1.29.15
None of the big ISPs are happy about today’s FCC vote drastically increasing the bare minimum that qualifies as “broadband.” But even though executives at Verizon, AT&T, and plenty of others are probably muttering aloud rude words in the C-suite right now, Comcast and Time Warner Cable have good reason to be more worried than most. [More]
Politicians’ Letters In Support Of Comcast Merger Were Actually Written By Comcast
By 1.26.15
In the eleven months since Comcast announced that it would acquire Time Warner Cable, numerous local and national politicians have written to the FCC in support of the merger, claiming it will create jobs (in spite of the fact that thousands of employees will inevitably be made redundant), spark investment (even though Comcast could just invest the $40 billion instead of using it to buy TWC), and provide broadband access for the poor (a program that’s been criticized as window dressing), without hurting competition (because there isn’t any to begin with). Many of the letters hit the same points… almost as if they were ghostwritten and the politicians just signed their names to them. [More]
T-Mobile’s Parent Company Still Wants To See It Married Off To Someone Else
By 1.19.15
It’s been a little more than three years since AT&T dumped T-Mobile at the altar when it became clear that the FCC and Justice Dept. wouldn’t sign off on the marriage. And while the little magenta wireless company has done okay for itself since — building out a decent LTE network, shaking up the subsidized device/contract model, and helping to preserve what little competition remains in the market — its parent company still wants to see T-Mobile USA married off to a wealthy American suitor. [More]
Samsung Electronics CEO: We’re Not Buying BlackBerry
By 1.19.15
Last week, it was rumored that Samsung was thinking of paying more than $7 billion to acquire wireless device maker BlackBerry. But the co-CEO for Samsung Electronics says his company doesn’t want to marry Blackberry; just enjoy a friends with benefits relationship. [More]
Samsung May Be The Only One Still Interested In Buying A Blackberry
By 1.14.15
Let’s flash back to 2007, when every hotshot businessperson on the go click-click-clicked away on their Blackberry. Maybe they even had one with a really nice color screen and a scrollwheel that didn’t break after a few months. Fast-forward to now, when anyone still carrying a Blackberry gets pelted with spoiled meats and exiled to a rocky island in the Delaware River where they watch VHS tapes and dial into AOL. And yet, Samsung is reportedly thinking about paying billions of dollars to buy Blackberry. [More]
More Groups Pile Onto “Stop Mega Comcast” Coalition
By 1.12.15
Only a month ago, a coalition of more than a dozen groups formed in an effort to work together in stopping the pending merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable. And while the federal regulatory review process inched forward on this deal, more and more groups have joined in the fight to prevent Comcast from dominating the consumer broadband market in the U.S. [More]
Comcast, Time Warner Cable Merger Review Delayed Again
By 12.23.14
Even with bought-and-paid-for Senators urging the FCC to hurry up its review of the pending merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable, there is only so much the regulators can do when they don’t have the documents they need to complete that review. That’s why the FCC has once again hit the pause button on the time clock for this mega-merger. [More]
Comcast Lobbyists Know How To Win Over D.C. Power Players — With Decent Customer Service
By 12.22.14
Sure, Comcast has no problem throwing around hundreds of thousands of dollars to win support from lawmakers who are willing to regurgitate whatever David Cohen tells them to say, but the company also knows how to really win people over to its side — by providing them access to customer service that isn’t horrible. [More]
Here’s What $184K In Campaign Contributions Gets Comcast — A Letter Of Support From Two Senators
By 12.11.14
Earlier today, the two U.S. Senators from Pennsylvania put aside partisan squabbling for a moment to agree that the only things more awesome than campaign contributions from Comcast are the things Comcast has told us are really cool about its pending merger with Time Warner Cable. [More]
Court Bars FCC From Disclosing How Much Comcast, DirecTV Pay Broadcasters
By 11.21.14
Last week’s last-minute legal battle between just about every major TV broadcaster and the FCC came to a quietly disappointing conclusion this morning, with a federal appeals court refusing to allow the government to share confidential details about the mergers of Comcast and Time Warner Cable, and DirecTV and AT&T. [More]
Charter Ready To Woo Time Warner Cable Again If Comcast Fails
By 11.20.14
Not even a year ago, Time Warner Cable was spurning the romantic advances of Charter Communications and its $37.3 billion offer of wedded bliss, all because it knew that Comcast was waiting in the wings with a more expensive proposal. But in case the Comcast/TWC marriage fails to get the blessing of federal regulators, Charter’s billionaire backer says he’s ready to be Time Warner Cable’s rebound relationship. [More]
