Smaller Cable Companies Say Comcast is Far Too Powerful

Smaller cable companies are calling for Comcast to face tougher oversight after conditions expired last week governing the company's 2011 merger with NBC Universal. Those conditions were designed to prevent Comcast from undermining Hulu (Comcast is a co-owner), and required they license content to streaming providers on equal terms with larger cable companies. They also required that Comcast adhere to some FCC net neutrality cobditions, even if they were eliminated (they were).

The expired conditions and Comcast's recent success in lobbying to kill consumer protections and most industry oversight have parties on both sides of the aisle worried about a bigger, far-more anti-competitive Comcast in the years to come.

Those worries are shared by the American Cable Association, a lobbying group that represents the nations small and mid-sized cable operators. These cable companies have grown increasingly annoyed by Comcast's power over content licensing, particularly when it comes to forcing smaller companies to pay high prices to access its regional sports networks.

"In 2011, the FCC and DOJ each found that Comcast’s acquisition of NBCU would harm competition by combining NBCU’s ‘must have’ video programming with Comcast’s distribution network,” ACA President and CEO Matthew Polka said in a statement. "The FCC and DOJ permitted Comcast to buy NBCU--but only if the parties abided by a series of conditions that ostensibly would alleviate the competitive harms."

The Trump DOJ is suing to thwart AT&T's $86 billion acquisition of Time Warner because it claims it's interested in protecting consumers (though hurting CNN and protecting Rupert Murdoch from competition are seen as more likely motivators). Industry watchers wonder why Comcast is getting a free pass when an AT&T (with just as rich a history of anti-competitive behavior) expansion is being challenged in the courts.

“The competitive concerns about vertical integration raised seven years ago by the FCC and the DOJ are undiminished today and require continued significant scrutiny," says the ACA.

Of course the ACA supported both the Trump administration and the appointment of FCC boss Ajit Pai, who've made it repeatedly, painfully clear that protecting large, incumbent ISP revenues takes top priority. As a result, the ACA helped usher in an era of regulatory capture where Comcast's are the primary focus, and now wants the FCC and DOJ to help protect it from the very policies it helped cement.

Needless to say, if you've watched Ajit Pai's work over the least year, you should be well aware the kind of help the ACA is looking for won't be arriving anytime soon.