ACA: Comcast-Fox would create serious harms and must be stopped

“Comcast/NBCU’s offer to buy ‘must have’ Fox programming assets should raise red flags for federal and state competition enforcers because of the grave harm it would cause to consumer welfare should the combination be consummated. Even without Fox, over the past seven years, Comcast/NBCU has demonstrated it will thwart competing programmers and raise rates and impose onerous terms on smaller broadband and video providers, many of whom compete with it. And, these harms have occurred even though Comcast-NBCU has been subject to government-imposed conditions designed to limit its anticompetitive acts,” said in a statement American Cable Association president and CEO Matthew Polka regarding Comcast’s offer to purchase most of 21st Century Fox for about US$65 billion.

Polka added that whatever harm they see today from Comcast/NBCU “will only grow should it be permitted to acquire key Fox programming assets. Rival distributors will stand no chance of getting a fair programming deal if Comcast/NBCU can control Fox’s Regional Sports Networks (RSNs) along with the Fox national cable programming networks, like FX, and join them with NBCU’s own extensive ownership of local television stations, RSNs, and top-rated national cable programmings, such as USA Network and CNBC.”