Can a Media Merger Bring Success? Comcast and NBCUniversal Say Yes

Comcast is the country’s largest cable company, selling television, broadband and phone service to 28.3 million customers. AT&T is the country’s largest television distributor after its acquisition last year of DirecTV, and counts more than 100 million subscribers across its wireless, broadband and TV offerings. Consumer groups denounced both deals with similar complaints: that they stifle competition, create unfair pricing and spur even more consolidation in an industry already controlled by relatively few companies. And some Washington experts have pointed to the conditions placed on Comcast’s deal for NBCUniversal as being too difficult to enforce — a harbinger, they say, of similar problems with an AT&T-Time Warner merger. Comcast says there has been just one violation of the conditions attached to its deal, but critics point to several disputes. They also point out that the conditions expire in 2018.