OTI Statement on Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing Examining the Comcast-Time Warner Cable Merger and the Impact on Consumers

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing to examine the proposed merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable. The hearing came just a day after Comcast submitted its public interest filing to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), an important next step in the federal agency review process of the deal.

The following statement can be attributed to Sarah Morris, Senior Policy Counsel for the Open Technology Institute at New America: “The public interest pronouncements made in the hearing simply do not address the myriad harms that would result from this merger. Comcast's statements and public interest filing include many of the same promises that were made in 2010 during the review of its merger with NBC Universal, but consumers are not in a better place now than they were then.

"It’s especially concerning that Comcast has not adequately answered the threshold question as to how its merger with Time Warner Cable would actually benefit consumers. Indeed, the company has not indicated that any cost-savings from so-called ‘efficiencies’ gained from the merger would ultimately result in lower costs for its subscribers, nor has it explained how it would otherwise mitigate the effects of an already uncompetitive broadband market. […]

"What consumers need now is not merger approval, but rather strong regulatory oversight of this industry and a careful, critical review of what would be a tremendous consolidation effort in an already uncompetitive industry. Conditions and rhetorical promises of public interest benefits alone cannot fix these harms. We urge regulators to block this merger.”