Stakeholders Spar Over Comcast/Time Warner, AT&T/DirecTV

At a panel session at the American Cable Association Summit in Washington, parties on both sides of the Comcast/Time Warner Cable and AT&T/DirecTV deals in particular and consolidation in general lined up to gauge the status of those deals inside the Beltway. Panel participants included Jon Lebowitz, of Davis Polk (which represents Comcast), and former Federal Trade Commission Chief; John Bergmayer of Public Knowledge; Jeff Blum from Dish; Hank Hultquist from AT&T and Ross Lieberman from the American Cable Association.

Blum, Bergmayer and Lieberman were arrayed against the deals. Bergmayer argued that Title II will not make it more likely for the Federal Communications Commission to approve the Comcast/TWC merger. He said it does not alleviate all the harms that the petitioners have raised. “Most of them are not even addressed by what we know about the net neutrality rules,” he said. The participants weren’t really willing to put odds on either deal’s approval, but the supporters thought it would go through and the opponents said it would not.