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US Justice Dept Approves Charter's Time Warner Cable Purchase With Conditions (reuters.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the monopoly-in-the-making dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The U.S. Justice Department has approved Charter Communications Inc's proposed purchase of Time Warner Cable Inc and Bright House networks, which would create the second-largest broadband provider and third largest video-provider. The Justice Department valued the purchase of Time Warner Cable at $78 billion and Bright House at $10.4 billion. Under terms, New Charter has agreed to refrain from telling its content providers that they cannot also sell shows online. The deal must also be approved by the Federal Communications Commission. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Monday he circulated an order seeking approval of the merger with conditions that "will directly benefit consumers by bringing and protecting competition to the video marketplace and increasing broadband deployment."

1 of 67 comments (clear)

  1. Re:How about forcing them to provide service to... by Obfuscant · · Score: 3, Informative

    Comcast has a government-granted monopoly over most of Seattle,

    No, they don't. They have a non-exclusive franchise agreement. From the actual franchise itself, paragraph 1.4(A) on page 5:

    The City reserves the right to grant additional franchises or similar authorizations to provide Video Programming services via Cable Systems or similar wireline systems located in the Right of Way.

    And in paragraph 20.6:

    20.6 Other Cable Franchises. The City shall not be limited or prevented by any provision in this Franchise from issuing any franchise, permit, license, or other agreement of any kind for all of Grantee's Franchise Area or any portion thereof, to other Cable Operators. This provision shall not alter any rights of Grantee under subsection 1.4 of this Franchise.

    Pretty explicit. Not a government-granted monopoly. If someone else wants to come along and meet all the requirements for the franchise, they can get one, too.

    but they don't offer service to a lot of Capitol Hill or many poor or mostly minority areas.

    Then your city council was remiss in not including a mandatory coverage clause in the franchise.