Today, the Federal Communications Commission released its Order formally approving the $34.5 billion Cox/Charter merger that would leave Charter with majority control of the new combined company.
Public Knowledge previously joined with Communications Workers of America, Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, and Center for Accessible Technology in filing a Petition to Deny the merger with the FCC, along with a Reply to Opposition.
The following can be attributed to John Bergmayer, Legal Director at Public Knowledge:
“The FCC approved the largest cable merger in nearly a decade and did not require Charter to do anything it wasn’t already planning to do. In 2016, the Commission approved Charter’s acquisition of Time Warner Cable only after imposing conditions on data caps, usage-based pricing, and paid interconnection. Today’s Order finds those concerns no longer apply, largely because the agency credits fixed wireless and satellite as competitive constraints on cable. Further, the Commission imposed no affordability conditions, despite doing so in the 2016 Charter, Comcast-NBCU, and Verizon-TracFone transactions. The record does not support this outcome.
“When an agency treats every concern as ‘not transaction-specific’ and every voluntary promise as ‘firm and definite,’ merger review becomes a formality. Consumers, as always, will bear the costs of reduced competition.”
You may view this full release.
Members of the media may contact Communications Director Shiva Stella with inquiries, interview requests, or to join the Public Knowledge press list at shiva@publicknowledge.org or 405-249-9435.