CenturyLink: Comcast/TWC merger poses cost challenges for telco TV providers

CenturyLink has become the latest service provider to protest against the pending Comcast and Time Warner Cable merger, saying that if the deal is approved, it will increase content costs for emerging telecommunications company TV players like itself that don't have the same scale and impede competition.

In a regulatory filing, CenturyLink said that large providers like Comcast, which have a much larger audience to provide video service, have more buying power to negotiate deals with content owners. Being a new player in the video services market, CenturyLink said it "has minimal value when negotiating for reasonable content costs" and if the Comcast/Time Warner Cable deal is approved "the combined company's purchasing power threatens to push their margins wider and further from the rest of the industry."