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CWA, IBEW Oppose Bid for Adelphia Assets
CWA and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers have called on the Federal Communications Commission to deny the bid of Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Inc. to take over the assets of Adelphia Communications Corp.
Consumers and the public interest would be the clear losers if this transaction were permitted to go forward, the unions stressed in a filing. The move would restrict competition for the distribution of programming, allow two companies to block other competitors' access to programming and result in higher rates for consumers, they said.
By taking over the assets of Adelphia, the nation's fifth largest cable operator with 5.2 million subscribers, Comcast and Time Warner would assure themselves access to 43.4 million households - 59 percent of the nation's cable subscribers.
These two companies have proposed "swaps" of cable systems that would only increase their monopoly control in particular markets, guaranteeing Comcast and Time Warner "the market power to favor their affiliated programming on their cable systems, to block competitors' access to popular programming, to raise cable and advertising rates above competitive levels and to degrade service quality and community standards," the unions said.
Comcast and Time Warner contend that these swaps represent a public interest benefit, but the FCC already has determined that regional clustering of cable franchise systems - which would result from these swaps - represents a significant barrier to competitive entry.
The unions also pointed out that consumers in several major markets - including Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and New York - already have felt the impact of this clustering and have been shut out of regional programming, particularly sports programming, when Comcast or Time Warner have refused to air programming owned by other networks, or refuse to negotiate with other cable or satellite service providers.
Consumers and the public interest would be the clear losers if this transaction were permitted to go forward, the unions stressed in a filing. The move would restrict competition for the distribution of programming, allow two companies to block other competitors' access to programming and result in higher rates for consumers, they said.
By taking over the assets of Adelphia, the nation's fifth largest cable operator with 5.2 million subscribers, Comcast and Time Warner would assure themselves access to 43.4 million households - 59 percent of the nation's cable subscribers.
These two companies have proposed "swaps" of cable systems that would only increase their monopoly control in particular markets, guaranteeing Comcast and Time Warner "the market power to favor their affiliated programming on their cable systems, to block competitors' access to popular programming, to raise cable and advertising rates above competitive levels and to degrade service quality and community standards," the unions said.
Comcast and Time Warner contend that these swaps represent a public interest benefit, but the FCC already has determined that regional clustering of cable franchise systems - which would result from these swaps - represents a significant barrier to competitive entry.
The unions also pointed out that consumers in several major markets - including Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and New York - already have felt the impact of this clustering and have been shut out of regional programming, particularly sports programming, when Comcast or Time Warner have refused to air programming owned by other networks, or refuse to negotiate with other cable or satellite service providers.