DISH Petitions FCC to Deny Charter-Time Warner Cable Merger -- 2nd Update
October 14 2015 - 4:52AM
Dow Jones News
By Shalini Ramachandran
Satellite provider Dish Network Corp. petitioned the Federal
Communications Commission on Tuesday to deny the proposed merger
between Charter Communications Inc. and Time Warner Cable Inc.,
citing the combined company's market power in broadband and what it
said was an ability to harm online video services.
In a statement, Dish said the merger "would be no better for the
public interest" than the prior proposed deal between Comcast Corp.
and Time Warner Cable that the companies abandoned after facing
stiff resistance from regulators. Dish had joined other companies
such as Netflix Inc. in drumming up opposition to that deal.
Dish, which offers the $20-a-month streaming service Sling TV,
said the proposed Charter-TWC merger has the potential to
"significantly damage competitive development of over-the-top
video." The satellite provider said that "almost two-thirds" of
households in its footprint won't have access to at least another
alternative high-speed broadband provider.
Dish also said Charter would be in a position to hamper the
service of online video providers, whose services compete with
cable TV providers, by degrading their traffic at "choke points" on
the Web.
"There is no more friendly broadband provider to Sling than
Charter," said Charter spokesman Justin Venech in an emailed
statement late Tuesday. "Charter's slowest speed is 60 [megabits
per second], we have no data caps, no contracts and modem
fees."
Charter has previously said that it believes its merger is in
the public interest and has sought to distance itself from
Comcast's failed attempt to acquire TWC, noting that Charter's new
subscriber total will still be less than that of Comcast's today if
its deals get approved.
Dish may find itself in a thinner crowd in the opposition ranks
on this merger, however. While there are some companies raising
alarms about Charter-TWC, the deal hasn't attracted the same number
of big-name enemies as the previous Comcast deal. Charter headed
off opposition from the likes of Netflix Inc. and Cogent
Communications Inc. by taking a favorable stance regarding Web
traffic handoffs into Charter's broadband network. Both those
companies, which opposed the Comcast deal, have since spoken out in
favor of Charter's merger with TWC.
Write to Shalini Ramachandran at
shalini.ramachandran@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 14, 2015 05:37 ET (09:37 GMT)
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