Why Big Media Won’t Stand Up To Comcast

[Commentary] If there is one thing to take away from Comcast’s appearance before a Senate panel to defend its $45.2 billion merger with Time Warner Cable it is this: Not one of the biggest TV network operators in the country testified.

Not CBS or Viacom, both controlled by billionaire mogul Sumner Redstone. Not 21st Century Fox, owned by billionaire mogul Rupert Murdoch (Sensing a theme here?) Not Time Warner. Not Disney. Not Discovery. None of these companies had anything to say about a merger that will hand Comcast control of roughly 30% of the nation’s television homes and 19 of top 20 markets.

We already knew NBC Universal wouldn’t have an opinion about the merger since Comcast already owns that company. But the silence of the other companies, which collectively are worth $360.2 billion, said more than any of their testimony ever could. And what the collective said boils down to this: Don’t bite the hand that pays you.