Today, Charter Communications and Cox Communications announced a $34.5 billion merger agreement that would leave Charter with majority control of the new combined company.
The following can be attributed to John Bergmayer, Legal Director at Public Knowledge:
“The last thing American consumers need is yet another mega merger, as giant internet service providers and cable companies claim they need to get yet-larger to keep up with their industry peers. More consolidation won’t fix the cable industry, and introducing new sets of competitive problems is no way to address existing ones. As always with cable mergers, the question is as much a loss of opportunities for content creators and programmers to reach an audience, as the loss of choices to subscribers.
“However troubling as this merger might be for competition, at least as troubling is what the companies might agree to in order to persuade the Trump administration and the current FCC to approve the deal.
“Will the companies drop cable channels critical of this administration, or agree to censor online content or sites that the administration disapproves of – something the loss of Title II and net neutrality makes all the more likely? Given FCC Chairman Carr’s proven willingness to use the agency’s power to ‘further the president’s agenda,’ and the willingness of companies to agree to get deals done, what could once be dismissed as paranoid speculation becomes frighteningly plausible.
“From walking back – even reversing – company policies designed to promote diversity and inclusion, to pulling back on news coverage critical of the administration, far too many companies have already put the short-term interest of currying favor with the White House over the public interest, and over the interests of their employees and the communities they serve. Hopefully that does not happen here.”
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.