Netflix opposes Comcast’s merger with Time Warner Cable, calls it anticompetitive

Netflix opposes Comcast's $45 billion bid for Time Warner Cable, no longer pulling its punches toward the company it recently agreed to pay for smoother video streams.

Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings and chief financial officer David Wells said the merger would create a single company with too much power over the broadband Internet market. Combined, Comcast and Time Warner Cable could control as much as half of all broadband Internet subscriptions, with most of those homes having no alternative options for broadband service providers, the executives said. "Comcast is already dominant enough to be able to capture unprecedented fees from transit providers and services as Netflix," the executives wrote. "The combined company would possess even more anti-competitive leverage to charge arbitrary interconnection tolls for access to their customers. For this reason, Netflix opposes this merger." Netflix is the first major Web company to criticize Comcast's acquisition plans. The company fears other ISPs will follow Comcast's demands of the video streaming service to pay for more direct connection with its home Internet users.