Critics: Cable Prices Will Soar if Comcast-NBC Deal Approved

The American Cable Association released a new report claiming that consumers will be hit with an additional $2.4 billion in fees over the next nine years if the $30 billion proposed joint venture combining Comcast and NBC Universal is approved by federal regulators.

The ACA commissioned Dr. William Rogerson, an economics professor at Northwestern University who served for a year as chief FCC economist in the late 90s, to conduct the research. Dr Rogerson concluded that a combined Comcast-NBCU would charge competing pay TV systems more for its programming. Those systems, in turn, would pass the added costs onto their customers through higher subscription rates. "It is clear that the Comcast-NBCU deal will send monthly cable bills higher by billions of dollars over the next decade, underscoring ACA's view that regulators must protect consumers and competition from a transaction whose benefits are vastly outweighed by its harms," ACA President and CEO Matt Polka said.