DISH Petitions FCC to Deny Charter-Time Warner Cable Merger -- 2nd Update

By Shalini Ramachandran 

Satellite provider Dish Network Corp. petitioned the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday to deny the proposed merger between Charter Communications Inc. and Time Warner Cable Inc., citing the combined company's market power in broadband and what it said was an ability to harm online video services.

In a statement, Dish said the merger "would be no better for the public interest" than the prior proposed deal between Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable that the companies abandoned after facing stiff resistance from regulators. Dish had joined other companies such as Netflix Inc. in drumming up opposition to that deal.

Dish, which offers the $20-a-month streaming service Sling TV, said the proposed Charter-TWC merger has the potential to "significantly damage competitive development of over-the-top video." The satellite provider said that "almost two-thirds" of households in its footprint won't have access to at least another alternative high-speed broadband provider.

Dish also said Charter would be in a position to hamper the service of online video providers, whose services compete with cable TV providers, by degrading their traffic at "choke points" on the Web.

"There is no more friendly broadband provider to Sling than Charter," said Charter spokesman Justin Venech in an emailed statement late Tuesday. "Charter's slowest speed is 60 [megabits per second], we have no data caps, no contracts and modem fees."

Charter has previously said that it believes its merger is in the public interest and has sought to distance itself from Comcast's failed attempt to acquire TWC, noting that Charter's new subscriber total will still be less than that of Comcast's today if its deals get approved.

Dish may find itself in a thinner crowd in the opposition ranks on this merger, however. While there are some companies raising alarms about Charter-TWC, the deal hasn't attracted the same number of big-name enemies as the previous Comcast deal. Charter headed off opposition from the likes of Netflix Inc. and Cogent Communications Inc. by taking a favorable stance regarding Web traffic handoffs into Charter's broadband network. Both those companies, which opposed the Comcast deal, have since spoken out in favor of Charter's merger with TWC.

Write to Shalini Ramachandran at [e-mail]

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October 14, 2015 05:37 ET (09:37 GMT)

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