Six US senators today urged the Federal Communications Commission and Department of Justice to block Comcast's proposed $45.2 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable.

As Comcast prepares for a meeting tomorrow with DOJ antitrust officials, the senators wrote a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Attorney General Eric Holder, saying, "we believe that Comcast-TWC's unmatched power in the telecommunications industry would lead to higher prices, fewer choices, and poorer quality services for Americans—inhibiting US consumers' ability to fully benefit from modern technologies and American businesses' capacity to innovate and compete on a global scale."

The letter was signed by Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.), Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).

As we wrote yesterday, "DOJ antitrust lawyers are reportedly close to recommending that the government block the deal. Comcast might be able to save the merger by agreeing to conditions, but the cable company could also walk away from the deal if the government asks for conditions to which it objects."

The senators urged the agencies to reject the deal outright. They wrote:

Since the proposal was announced last year, we have heard from consumers across the nation, as well as from advocacy groups, trade associations, and companies of all sizes, all of whom fear that the deal would harm competition across several different markets and would not serve the public interest. The concerns about the transaction center on the undeniable reality that the combined Comcast-TWC would be the overwhelmingly dominant cable and broadband Internet provider in the nation and control much of the programming that Americans watch. With 57 percent of the broadband Internet market and 30 percent of the cable market, Comcast-TWC would have an ability to defeat competing TV and Internet companies and stifle American innovation across the industry. And with Comcast's ownership of NBCUniversal and the numerous ￼popular TV networks it controls, the combined company would have incentives and means by which to extract higher prices from other multichannel video programming distributors and prioritize its own programming over that of competitors. Comcast-TWC's monopsony power to dictate the terms of transactions with programmers will also force companies from across the country to reevaluate their business models, including the content they produce and the prices they charge. We've also heard from constituents in our home states who are rightfully frustrated about their increasingly high cable and Internet bills and are concerned that the proposed acquisition will only drive those prices higher. Unfortunately, with only a handful of cable and Internet providers dominating the market, consumers are often left with little choice but to pay the price a given provider demands and have little say over what content is made available to them.

The senators concluded by asking the FCC and DOJ to "take a stand for US consumers and businesses and reject Comcast's proposed acquisition of TWC."

Comcast argues that the merger will not reduce competition because Comcast and TWC do not compete against each other.

"The benefits of the Comcast TWC deal are demonstrated and real," Comcast said in a statement today. "A better video experience—Comcast has twice as much VOD as TWC. Faster broadband speeds—today Comcast's are 25 percent faster than TWC's and we'll roll out faster speeds to more customers. More competition for businesses that economists estimate will save $8 billion for consumers. The country's best broadband adoption program for low-income Americans would come to new cities, and even more Americans will get connected for the first time. These benefits all come with no reduction in competition for consumers. We'll serve less than 30 percent of the video market, and only about 30 million of the 87 million broadband subscriptions in the US."