The Bigger Cable Guys

[Commentary] There’s uncertainty as to whether Washington will allow the Comcast/Time Warner Cable deal to go forward, but regulators will let it go through if they properly assess the rapidly changing telecom landscape. The competition in broadband Internet connections comes from firms like AT&T and Verizon. In video programming the cable guys compete with those same firms, plus Dish Network, DirecTV, Netflix, Google's YouTube and various other online ventures seeking to provide video. In this arena cable operators, regardless of size, are hardly dominant. The larger reality is that technology is disrupting the cable industry as it is so much else. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts says the merger will help consumers get higher broadband speeds and faster in-home Wi-Fi, and maybe he's right. But Comcast hasn't been the most nimble of competitors in innovating across the Internet, and in two or more years it could be outmaneuvered in the marketplace. Neither the Federal Communications Commission nor the Justice Department has any clue who is going to win, so the best way they can help consumers is to let companies and private investors fight it out.