CWA: Comcast/NBC Merger Raises Concerns about Jobs, Investment and Future of the Internet

'Comcast will be under extreme pressure to cut jobs, raise prices or renege on its debt'

Contact: Candice Johnson, CWA Communications Director, 202-434-1347

Read Testimony of CWA President Larry Cohen

Washington, D.C. – February 25, 2010 – CWA President Larry Cohen today told a Congressional panel that the potential of the proposed Comcast/NBC Universal merger to limit growth, investment, and jobs is clearly not in the public interest.

Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, Cohen urged lawmakers and regulators to assess the merger in terms of jobs, the impact on competition, and the likely negative effect on the emerging Internet video marketplace.

The proposed merger would saddle the company with $8 billion in new debt. "NBCU will be under pressure to cut jobs, raise prices or renege on that debt," Cohen said. CWA can cite firsthand many examples of media and communications mergers that did just that. "There are no warranties, no guarantees for consumers, workers and communities. Companies make lots of commitments but don't have to carry them out," he said. With the nation's unemployment near 10 percent, it's critical that we evaluate and assess corporate restructurings with regulatory review in terms of the impact on jobs, he said. 

Cohen also noted that Comcast has consistently adopted a low-road labor policy, one based on a strategy to stop workers from gaining bargaining rights and focusing on aggressive action to eliminate worker organization at companies that it has acquired.

The merger also would create a vertically integrated company, one with the market power to increase cable rates, block competition in the video marketplace and control content, Cohen said. "No other nation allows this degree of connection between content and pipe, and with good reason," he said.

Currently, there is a growing availability of video streaming and other video services through the Internet, and this is an important element of continued investment and deployment. A merged Comcast/ NBC could stop this move forward by blocking consumer access to NBC content, for other than cable subscribers.  The end result: the broadband investment of companies is devalued and companies will invest less in build out. 

“In the end, consumers lose innovation and an open Internet.  The Internet, once a source of expanding consumer choice and diversity of programming content, would now become mainly a vehicle to protect the current cable incumbents,” Cohen said.