Comcast: Broadband battleground

Comcast’s proposed takeover of Time Warner Cable is being studied by regulators, who are expected to decide whether to approve it by 2015. If the deal goes ahead, it will create the world’s biggest provider of broadband and cable television services, reshaping the media landscape in the process. The prospect of an enlarged Comcast -- which will leapfrog Walt Disney as the world’s largest media company -- has sparked anxiety among content companies. The recent, shortlived $71 billion bid for Time Warner, owner of HBO and CNN, from Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox was driven in part by a need to create a company big enough to stare down Comcast in negotiations on distribution over its cable systems.

A combined Comcast-TWC will supply some of the largest metropolitan areas in the US with cable television services and, more significantly, will be the largest provider of fixed-line, high-speed internet access. More than 40 percent of homes with speeds of 10 mbps – which is necessary to view streaming video services such as Netflix -- will get their broadband service from Comcast-TWC. For fixed-line homes capable of receiving speeds of 50 mbps, the combined company’s share will jump to almost 60 percent, according to Free Press. The proposed merger of the top two cable providers has generated a storm of protest.