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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2015
Winners, losers of the demise of the big Comcast deal
NEW YORK (AP) — In
the aftermath of Comcast’s
decision to walk away from
buying Time Warner Cable,
some winners and losers are
emerging.
The combined company
would have created an Inter-
net and TV behemoth with
unprecedented power over
what Americans download
and watch. It would have
served nearly 30 percent of
video subscribers and 55 per-
cent of the country’s broad-
band homes. It also would
have controlled NBCUni-
versal, home to NBC, cable
networks including Bravo
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Pictures.
But consumer advocates
and Internet activists had
railed against the deal from
the start, saying it would
limit consumer choices and
lead to higher prices. And
ultimately the planned merg-
er fell apart after regulators
decided it would be bad for
consumers.
The breakdown of the
deal is being seen as a blow
to Comcast and the cable in-
dustry in general. Converse-
ly, it’s being hailed as a vic-
tory for consumer advocates
and the competitors of the
two companies.
WINNERS
Online video providers
A major worry for regula-
tors was that a bigger Com-
cast would be able to choke
the online video industry.
Why? Comcast has its cable
business to protect and could
also create online-only TV
service of its own.
Dish, the satellite TV
company that recently intro-
duced a Web TV program
called Sling TV, was one of
the backers of a group called
Stop Mega Comcast that
advocated against the merg-
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which had faced off with
Comcast over having to pay
it network-connection fees
to ensure that its content
would stream more smoothly
to Comcast subscribers, also
opposed the deal.
Consumer advocates
This is the second big bat-
tle consumer advocates have
won this year. They pushed
the FCC to enact Net Neu-
trality rules that would keep
broadband providers from
blocking, slowing or making
special “fast lanes” for con-
tent.
They also railed against
the power over the Inter-
net and TV that a combined
Comcast and Time Warner
Cable would have. By crit-
icizing the deal and getting
negative stories about Com-
cast to the media and Capitol
Hill, “we were able to pro-
vide enough cover” for reg-
ulators to challenge the deal,
said Matt Wood of Internet
and media advocacy group
Free Press.
Media companies
The combined company
would have had more power
to negotiate lower prices for
TV and movies that are piped
into subscribers’ homes from
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and Viacom. It also could
have used its increased mus-
cle to favor its own NBCU-
niversal programming over
content from those compa-
nies.
The competition
Some had thought that
AT&T’s $48.5 billion pur-
chase of DirecTV, announced
a few months after Comcast’s
deal, would help regulators
approve both transactions
because the two giants would
balance each other out.
The Comcast deal is dead,
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AT&T deal to go through.
AT&T says it will close by
the end of June. The com-
bined company would have
more subscribers than Com-
cast — 26 million video sub-
scribers— but fewer Internet
customers at 16 million.
LOSERS
Comcast
The company spent more
than a year working on this
$45 billion transaction,
which would have added mil-
lions to its subscriber rolls,
broadened the reach of its X1
video operating system, giv-
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ness-services division and
helped it cut costs. The deal
is also another big failed deal
attempt for Comcast CEO
Brian Roberts, who is used
to winning. Disney rejected
his $54 billion hostile offer
in 2004.
involved in the ISP business
than ever before,” wrote
BTIG analyst Rich Green-
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could hurt companies’ stock
prices.
On the other hand, the
increased scrutiny could be
good for customers: “In-
The cable industry
creased regulatory scrutiny
as a whole
could prompt cable compa-
([SHUWV LQ WKH LQGXVWU\ nies to raise broadband pric-
say the breakdown of this es less aggressively in the fu-
deal is further evidence that ture for fear of drawing even
the government is scrutiniz- more attention,” said Andy
ing Internet service providers +DUJUHDYHV RI 3DFL¿F &UHVW
more. Cable companies are Securities in a note.
the dominant providers of
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wired Internet access in the
Time Warner and
U.S.
Charter Communications
“It is quite evident that
Charter Communications.
regulators will be far more
Charter, another big cable
company, wanted to buy
Time Warner Cable for $38
billion, but Time Warner Ca-
ble chose Comcast. So Char-
ter bid $10.4 billion for cable
operator Bright House. It was
also gaining some subscrib-
ers in a side transaction to
the Comcast deal. Both those
deals required that Comcast
buy Time Warner Cable. So
those fell apart.
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ter to try to buy Time War-
ner Cable again, at a similar
price as before or a higher
price. It could also make
another arrangement with
Bright House. Or both. But
Time Warner Cable could
also try to buy Bright House.
AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File
The Comcast logo appears on one of the company’s ve-
hicles, in Pittsburgh. The planned merger of Comcast and
Time Warner Cable fell apart after regulators decided it
would be bad for consumers.