Report: FCC Chairman Wheeler Moves to Approve Disastrous Cable Merger

WASHINGTON — The Wall Street Journal reports that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler plans to circulate a draft order approving Charter Communications’ $90 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks.

Any order must still be approved by a majority vote of the five-member FCC. The Justice Department is also vetting the deal, which, if approved, would combine the nation’s second-, third- and sixth-largest cable TV and Internet providers.

A diverse coalition of consumer advocates, Internet activists and civil rights groups has opposed the deal. If the merger were to go through, just two Internet service providers, Charter and Comcast, would control nearly two-thirds of the nation’s high-speed Internet subscribers.

Free Press CEO and President Craig Aaron made the following statement:

“This deal can be summed up in three words: What a waste.

“The sheer expense of this merger is staggering. When you factor in the debt taken on, Charter is paying $10 billion more for Time Warner Cable than Comcast was willing to pay for the same exact assets just over a year ago. Charter is taking on nearly $27 billion in new debt to finance this deal. It can only recover that by hiking prices for its subscribers.

“This same money could be spent to build new competitive broadband options for tens of millions of people. If this deal gets approved, however, these billions won’t help build anything. They’ll merely be a payoff to Time Warner Cable’s shareholders and executives. CEO Rob Marcus will get a $100 million golden parachute for his troubles, while cable customers will be stuck with the tab.

“Together Charter Communications and Comcast would have unprecedented control over our cable and Internet connections. Their crushing monopoly power would mean fewer choices, higher prices, no accountability and no competition. No conditions can mitigate this merger’s many public interest harms or lower the monthly bills for those who’ll be hit hardest by these rate hikes: people in low-income communities and on the wrong side of the digital divide.

“If this leak to the press was just a trial balloon, Wheeler should pop it. If he’s serious about broadband competition — and he recently admitted he hasn’t done enough to promote it — the chairman needs to block this disastrous deal and get back to protecting the public interest.”

“The FCC chairman claims that his mantra is ‘competition, competition, competition.’ Maybe his new slogan should be ‘competition, competition — never mind.’”