via John Kiesewetter Local Time
Warner Cable customers likely won’t see any changes immediately if the federal
government approves Comcast’s plan to buy the cable company for $45 billion.
Comcast,
which purchased NBC Universal from General Electric three years ago, will sell
off some cable systems totaling about 3 million subscribers to appease
government regulators. It’s far too early to know which cities Comcast would
shed.
The move
would lower Comcast’s national share of cable TV customers to 30 per cent, a
benchmark used by the Federal Communications Commission even though it was
thrown out by a federal court in 2009.
Comcast
has 22 million cable subscribers, and Time Warner has 11 million. But Comcast
has 53.1 million customers when TV, broadband and phone are combined, which
will grow by 14.4 million with Time Warner, USA Today reported.
Locally,
Time Warner is the major cable operator in Greater Cincinnati and Northern
Kentucky. It doesn’t reveal subscriber numbers, but its footprint reaches north
to Dayton, Oxford and Portsmouth. The company also has customers in the
Columbus, Cleveland, Louisville and Lexington areas.
Some
observers are more concerned about the new media giant’s increased control over
providing Internet service to American homes than cable TV, which has lost
customers to Netflix and other competitors.
Los
Angeles Times business writer Michael Hiltzik notes that “Comcast has already
shown that it’s not above using its effective near-monopoly on Internet
connectivity in its service area to stifle competitors.”
“The FCC
slapped its wrist after it was caught engaging in this illicit behavior in
2007,” Hiltzik wrote. “The acquisition of Time Warner Cable will simply expand
the geographical area subject to its ruthless competitive practices.”
But Time
Warner and Comcast customers could benefit from their combined clout
negotiating fees with cable networks, a source of tension in the industry.
Hooking up
with Comcast could help turn around Time Warner’s retention rate. Comcast added
43,000 television customers in the fourth quarter last year, while Time Warner
lost 217,000 video subscribers, Bloomberg News reported. Time Warner was hurt
by competition from AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and streaming
services such as Netflix Inc., Bloomberg News said.
Time Warner and
Comcast already have worked together on a new project to improve set-top boxes,
USA Today said. Comcast has invested billions on new high-tech Xfinity set-top
boxes and “TV Everywhere” services, USA Today said
