USTelecom Quits Anti-Charter/TWC/BHN Group, as FCC Staff Asks Others About the Deals
Landline telcos' largest trade group quit a coalition of telcos, pay-TV providers, consumer groups and others that has been seeking to block Charter Communications' planned buys of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable. Meanwhile, FCC staff asked executives of two major programmers to discuss the pair of deals worth about $90 billion, said filings posted Friday in docket 15-149. The staffers are asking programmers questions about video market competition and past transaction conditions as part of the agency's review of Charter/TWC/BHN.
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At the request of the FCC, Disney and 21st Century Fox met with FCC staff Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss matters such as the relationships between multichannel video programming distributors and online video distributors, the two said in ex parte filings posted Friday (see here and here). Disney said it discussed broadband-based video services -- and the increased consumer choice they bring -- "as advancing the public interest," and how such OVD business models might differ from MVPDs. Disney said FCC staff asked about "ways in which provisions in MVPD licensing agreements can inhibit the development or growth of new entrants in the provision of video distribution services" and about FCC conditions in previous MVPD industry transactions and how the agency "can make orders more or less administrable."
Fox said it talked about contract provisions that historically have been common in distribution agreements between MVPDs and programming networks, and the effects those could have on distributors setting up "innovative distribution platforms." Fox said it also discussed "potential regulatory approaches to preventing any competitive harms that might result from such provisions." It said it also fielded questions about the potency of conditions in other MVPD deal approvals and the enforcement mechanisms available for those conditions. 21st Century Fox's meeting included Gerson Zweifach, senior executive vice president-group general counsel, and Associate General Counsel Jared Sher, with FCC General Counsel Jonathan Sallet and Owen Kendler, who's heading the commission working team overseeing the deals' review. Disney General Counsel Alan Braverman and others met with FCC parties including Sallet and Kendler.
USTelecom cited a rift in policy stances with the Stop Mega Cable coalition, announcing Friday it's leaving the group. Stop Mega Cable was unveiled in January as a collection of companies, public interest groups and trade associations aimed at blocking the deals (see 1601210028). USTelecom said it has maintained it doesn't seek to block the deals, but insists that they be conditioned on prohibitions blocking Charter from its giving to or receiving from other cable operators too-big preference and limiting any influence by Liberty Broadband Chairman John Malone -- Liberty being a major stakeholder in Charter. Remaining Stop Mega Cable members include Cincinnati Bell, Dish Network, FairPoint Communications, ITTA, NTCA and Zoom, according to the coalition's website. Some companies that are members of those groups are in turn USTelecom members. Charter didn't comment.
In a statement, Stop Mega Cable said it "appreciate[s] the role that USTelecom played in launching this effort and, more importantly, appreciate[s] its persuasive FCC filing outlining some of the harms of this merger. Stop Mega Cable remains a large and diverse coalition that will continue to aggressively raise awareness about the enormous threat the Charter/Time Warner Cable merger poses to consumers, innovation, and competition.”