If Google, Apple and Intel enter the pay-TV...
If Google, Apple and Intel enter the pay-TV market, regulators would have to focus on broadband policies to protect the new competitors, said Paul Gallant of Guggenheim Partners, in a research note to investors Monday. Entry by brand-name firms as…
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true cable-TV substitutes would revive calls for the FCC or the Department of Justice “to scrutinize cable operators’ usage-based pricing as a potential mechanism for TV cord-cutting,” said Gallant. If these companies became direct competitors to cable, the FCC would face calls to ensure cable doesn’t use traffic exchange policies to limit competition, he said. Any FCC efforts to strengthen these brand-name companies could be used to help Netflix reduce its costs “by gaining direct interconnection with cable broadband service” and it would have negative implications for content delivery networks by helping content providers with sufficient volume to bypass CDNs and directly connect to last-mile ISPs, Gallant said. Entry by Google, Apple and Intel may further diminish any Washington interest in anti-bundling policies, he said. Gallant said the new commission policies will depend on the agenda of incoming FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler.