This week, the Washington Post [[endorsed Comcast’s takeover of Time Warner Cable, the largest taking over the second-largest. The Post said the deal was OK, but regulators should keep a “watchful eye” on it and be prepared to act “if big industry players begin to violate basic principles of market fairness.”](http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fcc-should-approve-the-comcast-time-warner-merger-but-keep-a-watchful-eye/2014/04/14/41838cc0-c1bf-11e3-b574-f8748871856a_story.html)](http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fcc-should-approve-the-comcast-time-warner-merger-but-keep-a-watchful-eye/2014/04/14/41838cc0-c1bf-11e3-b574-f8748871856a_story.html)
[<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fcc-should-approve-the-comcast-time-warner-merger-but-keep-a-watchful-eye/2014/04/14/41838cc0-c1bf-11e3-b574-f8748871856a_story.html">That’s like telling someone it’s OK to step on a rattlesnake but to be careful not to get bitten. It’s also a little late. Those principles are long dead, killed in large part by a compliant Congress and weak regulators. If the deal](http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fcc-should-approve-the-comcast-time-warner-merger-but-keep-a-watchful-eye/2014/04/14/41838cc0-c1bf-11e3-b574-f8748871856a_story.html)
ost’s
ilike our nelded Age.</p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fcc-should-approve-the-comcast-time-warner-merger-but-keep-*** /## 4/41838cc0-c1bf-11e3-b574-f8748871856a_st t> <h4 class="ambroise-hdr marg-t-med marg-b-med">Art Brodsky</h4> <p class="about gray-5 oxide no-marg">About</p> <a href="https://twitter.com/artbrodsky">Art Brodsky</a> is a veteran journalist and advocate in Internet and telecommunications issues. He is now a communications consultant. <hr class="gray-5"> <h2>What the Comcast-TWC Merger Means for You</h2> <p>In this deal, every antitrust expert says that the way law is now interpreted, Comcast can buy Time Warner because the two don’t compete with each other, so there is no
choice for consumers. Think about that for a minute. The way the cable industry is structured, each company operates in its own franchise area. The industry is structured not to compete. So under the Comcast-Time Warner logic, Comcast could buy up every other cable company in the country and not be bothered a bit by that old-hat concept of antitrust.</p> <p>What that formula ignores, of course, is the collater
apats, called “retransmission consenegations, in which they can’t agree on who should pay how much for programming. More and more, they end up with consumers getting the short end of the stick when a cable system is all of a sudden missing, say,</p> <a href="http://www.consumerist.com/20
2/time-warner-cable-customers-lose-signal-during-super-bowl/">the network carrying the Super Bowl</a>. <p>It’s one thing if even one cable system with 22 m
oustomers gets into a fight wit
nnd the nation’s largest markets (added by the TWC acquisi) suddenly black out most of the country.</p> <p>Think that competition from the Internet wilut into this domination? Not when you realize Comcast is the largest broadband provider, and TWC is No. 2.</p> <p>Comcast can, without impunity,</p> <a href="https://www.wired.com/2014/02/comcast-netflix/">force a wou
empetitor like Netflix to
y cut a deal with Verizon so that, except in areas offeringizon’s FiOS fiber service, Comcast will sell Verizon’s wireless service and Verizon will sell Comcast’s cable-based wired broadband. How special.</p> <p>In the most recentse,</p> <a href="%E2%80%9Dhttp://a
cederal Communications Cosion (FCC)</a> and cried, in essence, “extortion” when Comcast said that Netflix, which supplies lots of Net traffic, had to connect directly with the cable giant and cut out Cogent. <p>The new FCC chairman, Tom Wheeler,</p> <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/1/5570632/fcc-shoots-down-nlix-call-for-expanding-net-neutrality">basically said, “tough.”</a> So, realizing the law wasn’t coming to the rescue, Netflix folded, once again proving the old adage that freedom for the wolves has often meant the death of the sheep. I don’t know about you, but I’d miss lamb once all the sheep are slaughtered as the would-be shepherds look the other way. <p>All the learned D.C. ch
r## talk about the deal being approved with cond sThat’s a great theory, but the practical applications are limited. Comcast spent milli
la1. the word “now” from its takeover of NBC and millions more to favor its own Golf Channel over the independent Tennis Channel in placement on program tiers. But let’s consider some plausible conditions.</p> <h2>7 Conditions the FCC Could and Should Impose</h2> <p>(Justified by the Law of Spiderman, i.e. “With great power comes great responsibility”)</p> <ol> <li> The combined Comcast has ts to work for their repeal and will not contest anyo2. TWC is the most obvious culprit, having fought its battle against municipalities in North Carolina. TWC, Comcast o3. s work also through the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), <a href="http://www.americanlegislator.org/federalism-prohibits-preemption-states-broadband-safeguards/">the shadowy group pushing anti-consumer legislation.</a></li> <li> Comcast-TWC has to establish a fund of, say, $1 billion, to aid local governments in building their own s s4. i> <li> The combined entity must agree to a stringent Net Neutrality policy. Off the table are the weak-tea rules negotiated by Verizon and Google, and n5. ce by the late and unlamented Julius Genachowski during his term at the FCC. This time, former FCC Commissioner Micha p6. the embodiment of the public interest, gets to write the rules.</li> <li> No data caps. It’s p7. n time and time again that caps have nothing to do with traffic management and everything to t fg competition.</li> <li> If there are to be these ridiculous “retrans” disputes, the channels stay on the systems until the issue is resolved.</li> <li> The company shall not require direct connection to its network. Netf
gits money
.r hasn’t shown any inkling to foster it. Competitiorks when there are equal forces at work and when consumers have choice. Neir is in play here.</p> <p>If Wheeler,</p> <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/fcc-chief-leans-on-candor--and-a-megaphone--to-get-his-point-across/2014/04/11/1a87f4ce-b924-11e3-9a05-c739f29ccb08_story.html">subject of a glowing profile in t
angton Post</a>, really means what he says about competition, now’s the chance to prove it. <p>If his fellow Commissioners, Democrats Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel want to be more than followers, they must insist on consumer protections. And if Republicans Mike O’Rielly and Agit Pai really believ
ition,
’etter example he existence of our Second Gilded Age than Comcast. Government has made it possible for the company to exert economic power unheard of a generation ago. If this deal is to go through, Comcast should be required to pay dearly for the privilege of exerting market domination.</p> <p><i>Editor:</i></p> <a href="https://twitter.com/EmilyDreyfuss">Emily Dreyfuss</a>
